The Gauch' rode more than 2500 winners with 35 at G1 level. It all began in 1983 with the first of four Melbourne premierships - three of those as an apprentice

Darren Gauci was one of Australia's most successful and durable jockeys. Gauci first encountered horses when his apprentice brother Mick asked him to help out at the stables of trainer Don Shannon after school. That led to the soccer mad teenager being bitten by the racing bug. Darren, who at 13 was so small he had to stand on an upturned bucket to look over the stable doors. Apprenticed to Frank King at Caulfield, his first win was on Terbla at Bairnsdale, April 1982 in the East Gippsland Cup. While we laud the performances of the higher profile apprentices nowadays, in the early 1980s Gauci was the golden boy of racing in Melbourne. Two days after he notched his first Gr.1 victory with Chagemar in the Gr.2 Dalgety at Flemington in 1983, Gauci outrode his claim in winning the VRC Oaks (2500m) on the Taj Rossi filly Taj Eclipse, who was trained by the late Bart Cummings. It is a testimony to Darren’s innate skill, his wonderful hands, his perfect balance and excellent judgement that he lost his allowance in the metropolitan area just 571 days after opening his winning account at Bairnsdale. He would go on to win the Senior Victorian Jockeys Premiership in 1983–84, 1985–86 and 1990–91. While Gauci had an incredibly successful career with 35 Group 1 wins, the Melbourne Cup was the one that got away. He came close to winning Australian racing's greatest prize on three occasions, with seconds in the Melbourne Cup on Chagemar (1984), Super Impose (1989) and On A Jeune (2005).

Gauci won 35 Group 1 races. For several years, Gauci also rode with great success in Hong Kong. Gauci won five races on trainer Lee Freedman's champion Super Impose, including an Epsom Handicap (1990), and rode Lonhro to victory in the Caulfield Guineas (2001) and the St George Stakes (2004) in his two rides on the "black flash". In an extensive association with trainer John Hawkes, he also won The Thousand Guineas on Shame (1995), a Doncaster Handicap on Over (2000) and a Stradbroke Handicap on Crawl (2001), but the partnership was terminated in 2005. At the 2005 and 2006 Spring Carnivals in Melbourne, Gauci won a feature race on El Segundo, and was narrowly beaten in the Cox Plate. Gauci rode the brilliant Shaftesbury Avenue to the win the 1991 Newmarket Handicap and Caulfield Stakes and ran 3rd in a Japan Cup on the horse. River Rough gave him back to back Group 1 Darley Classic wins in 1983/1984.

Over the years, Gauci had a number of bad riding injuries. For example, when he was in his early twenties, Gauci fell at Yarra Glen races and slipped in and out of a coma for eight days. In June 2011, at Mornington racecourse, the horse he was riding had a heart attack under him, crashed through the running rail, collapsed and died. Darren suffered severe injuries and he did not recommence riding for ten months.

Despite his experience and skill, Gauci had fewer rides on prominent horses towards the end of his career. Gauci had ridden in 7048 races and been placed in 1904 races including 669 wins. Total prize money won by horses ridden by Gauci was almost $36 million. Gauci retired from riding in February 2017 to take up a role as apprentice jockey coach with Racing Victoria. At his final race meeting after 37 years riding and at the age of 51, he bowed out a winner on $17 shot Goodwill at Caulfield in 2017, the aptly named horse, for owner Lloyd Williams.