Jockey Lachlan Neindorf admits he mentally ‘checked out’ during his first riding stint in Victoria and lost the respect of key racing industry figures.
The gun South Australian apprentice joined the Freedman’s Pinecliff operation in 2020 with high hopes of making an immediate impact in Melbourne.
However, winners were hard to come by, opportunities dried up, and Neindorf’s confidence and motivation evaporated.
“In the end, I half went insane and lost my mind.”
“I wasn’t really thinking straight, I was making bad decisions, and my work ethic dropped off,” Neindorf says.
Fast-forward four years and Neindorf has two Group 1s to his name, sits third in the Victorian Jockey Premiership with over 100 winners and counting, and most importantly has regained the trust and respect of prominent Victorian trainers and owners.
A forthright Neindorf reflects on the early mistakes he made and how he set about rectifying them.
“I feel like when I was over here as an apprentice, I’d hop on a horse and have a fair idea if it was a chance or not. And I’d know who the main threats in the race were, but not much beyond that.
“I’d get off one and the stable would say ‘didn’t you know that horse was going to lay in?’, and a lot of the time I wouldn’t, Neindorf says.
“Now I go to the races and I know everything about every one of my rides and the top four horses in the market.
“I know their racing habits and what they do under pressure.
“I could be three-back the fence but I won’t panic because I know the leader has an 80 percent chance of hanging out, so the inside should open up.
“I look back at my first stint and I was just so far off it tactically.
“I was at a huge disadvantage because I wasn’t doing the homework,” Neindorf says.
While Neindorf knew his professionalism wasn’t where it needed to be, the then teenager wasn’t mentally strong enough to escape the rut he found himself in.
“I never really hit the ground running with the Freedman’s and because they were out at Pinecliff, I wasn’t mixing with other stables much at all.
“So I wasn’t getting those outside opportunities and I didn’t really have any sort of network having come across from SA.
“It was COVID time as well, so I felt pretty isolated away from family and friends and I just wasn’t mature enough to fight through it all.
“After I finished up with the Freedmans, I went to Lindsay Smith for a bit but it was more of the same.
“I wasn’t getting decent rides because I wasn’t doing the work. I effectively became a trackwork rider, getting paid by Clinton McDonald.
“I stopped going to places like Hamilton and Donald for two or three rides because I just didn’t have the motivation, even though I knew I had to do it to resurrect my career.
“My commitment had dropped off and I’d lost a lot of respect from a lot of people, which was fair enough.”
Neindorf says it was a chat with Lindsay Smith that compelled him to return to South Australia.
“He basically said, ‘I think you’re better off going back to Adelaide to try to get some momentum going, because it’s not really happening for you here.”
“I was probably in denial a bit and had taken offence when people back home and told me to come back.”
“When Lindsay said it, someone I really respected, I just thought that enough people are telling me to pull the pin here – I should probably listen,” Neindorf says.
He returned to South Australia in 2022 and it didn’t take him long to find his feet back on familiar ground.
With less depth in the riding ranks and the backing of some of the state’s leading stables, such as the Jolly’s, Neindorf rediscovered his riding mojo.
“The main thing was that the support was there straight away.
“It was a lot easier to rediscover my drive and work harder when I wasn’t just riding a couple of 100-1 pops.
“So with early success came a real hunger to just ride as many winners as I could and to prepare as best as I could, physically and mentally.
“The lessons I learnt in Victoria around professionalism and doing the extra work, it was easier to put them into practice when the winners were flowing and I had the trust of stables and owners.”
In terms of professional standards, Neindorf believes veteran hoop Craig Williams is the best in the caper and is someone he has modelled himself on.
“He’s obviously a fantastic jockey but what takes him to the next level is just being able to speak in such great detail about horses and races.
“He just talks and talks and talks, and people think he gibbers on, but he knows everything there is to know about every horse.
“He gets home from riding and he’ll sit on the laptop until 11pm, his brain never switches off.
“I think Craig is a prime example of someone that has taken his career to the next level by being able to speak so well to trainers and owners.
“That’s the biggest lesson I learnt from my apprenticeship – talent is not enough, you need to be able to dissect a race before it’s run and have multiple plans for different scenarios,” Neindorf says.
“Owners love it when you have a clear idea in your head of how a race is going to unfold and you can give them greater insights than just what’s in the form guide.”
Now entrenched in the Victorian riding ranks, Neindorf’s main goal next season is to add a Melbourne Group 1 to his resume.
“It’s the main reason why I returned to Victoria for another crack.
“In 2024, I won my first Group 1 on Climbing Star in the Sangster, which was huge.
“Then you’re desperate to ride another one to prove that it wasn’t a fluke, and thankfully that came last year on Femminile in the SA Derby.
“Rightly or wrongly, some don’t respect the Adelaide Group 1s so I really wanted to notch one up interstate and if I stayed in SA for another season, maybe I’d miss the boat – ‘he’s just an Adelaide jockey’.
“This second stint has obviously been a lot more successful and I feel more at home now, but a Group 1 in the spring would really make me feel like I’ve cemented myself here,” Neindorf says.
Two vastly different gallopers could provide Neindorf with paths to Group 1 glory this spring, with Stokes-trained pair Deakin and Stretan Ruler set to make their presence felt.
The former finished 8th in last year’s Caulfield Cup, beaten just over three lengths as a $13 chance, and that race is once again the target.
“He’s going really well and will be better for it,” Neindorf says of the OTI import with only 19 starts to his name.
Young sprinter Stretan Ruler is another galloper Neindorf believes has strong Group 1 prospects.
The rising three-year-old colt won the Group 2 Silver Slipper by panels in February, before finishing just outside of the placegetters in the Golden Slipper.
“He’s a really exciting sprinter who will hopefully end up in the Coolmore.”
While his goals are lofty, Neindorf won’t be throwing the toys out of the cot if a Group 1 win eludes him this spring.
“I think I’ve laid the groundwork to set myself up for not only this spring, but the next few major carnivals to come.
“It’s all about creating opportunities for yourself, because nothing is handed to you in this game.”
