A tough, take no nonsense jockey, Craig Williams has achieved the lauded Grand Slam of Australian racing

Craig Williams is one of Australia’s best-known and most successful jockeys, having been at the top for two decades.

A truly globetrotting jockey, Williams has won races at the highest level in Hong Kong, Japan, France, the UK, the UAE and Australia. Craig’s family has a long and successful history in racing – his father Allan Williams was one of Melbourne’s top jockeys before injury forced him to retire from riding. Allan became a Group 1 winning trainer while his grandfather was respected Melbourne trainer Tom Harrison. His uncle is Doug Harrison, also a group-winning trainer who is held in high esteem in Melbourne. Craig’s cousin Travis Harrison was a top apprentice jockey when he was sadly killed in a car accident and Travis remains an inspiration to him.

Craig gained his Jockey ‘A’ licence with the Victoria Racing Club in September 1997 and remains the youngest jockey to win the Cranbourne Cup. His first Group 1 winner was the Australasian Oaks for trainer Lee Freedman and has gone on to win 77 Group 1 races locally and internationally, amassing close to 2500 race wins. Williams rode his first race in 1993. In 2011, he almost achieved a unique Australian horse racing triple, in winning the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup. After winning the first two on Southern Speed and Pinker Pinker respectively, Williams was suspended for careless riding during the 2011 Bendigo Cup. The horse he was scheduled to ride in the Melbourne Cup, Dunaden, went on to win with last-minute replacement jockey Christophe Lemaire on board.

In the 2012 Caulfield Cup, Williams rode Dunaden to an unprecedented victory. A few days before the race Dunaden had drawn the outside barrier (barrier 22, although after scratchings it became barrier 18), and was also the top weighted horse for the race, carrying 58 kg. Dunaden had subsequently drifted in the betting odds, as no horse had ever won the Caulfield Cup from wider than barrier 15, nor carrying top weight. The win also made it back-to-back Caulfield Cup victories for Williams. In 2019, Williams rode Vow and Declare to win the Melbourne Cup in his 15th start in the race.

Williams won the Dewhurst on Tobougg during a stint in the UK-based with Mick Channon. This year he captured the A$14 million ($9.47m) Everest for the first time on Giga Kick, a year in which he visited Ukraine, with his Ukrainian-born wife Larysa and family, to deliver humanitarian aid to the country. Giga Kick’s win was a historic moment in Williams’s celebrated career as he became the first jockey to win Australian racing’s “Golden Slam” – Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate, Golden Slipper and The Everest. He has won the Scobie Breasley Medal five times: in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2017