**Just a quick article I wanted to throw up. Thankyou to the Gold Coast Bulletin and Brad Davidson for the article.
May Nathan Rest In Peace and the love of the racing community be with his family. His funeral is on Tuesday.
IT was four days before this year’s Magic Millions carnival when I first met Nathan Berry.
It was 5am on a Tuesday morning in early January and Nathan was about to put Magic Millions favourite Unencumbered through his final gallop at the Gold Coast Turf Club when I noticed him rush through the stables.
“Nathan, Brad from the Gold Coast Bulletin, nice to meet you,” I blurted as he power walked towards the track.
Most jockeys would acknowledge you. Say hello at least and perhaps even offer a quick handshake to be polite.
But Nathan was different.
He stopped instantaneously, offered a handshake and then began talking.
We only spoke for 15 seconds but that’s all it took to work out what type of bloke Nathan was.
I wasn’t talking to a stranger. I was talking to somebody that was actually interested in what I had to say and was genuinely happy to meet me.
Nathan might have been a young jockey on the rise but his talent on the track had nothing on his personality.
Simply put, Nathan was a champion bloke.
The kind of guy where nothing was too hard. The kind of guy that knew the only way to succeed was through hard work and the kind of guy that would treat a no-name journalist fishing for a story just the same as meeting Bill Gates.
Nathan’s passing last week rocked the Australian racing industry.
They often say only the good die young and this adage rings true with Nathan.
Sadly, his death came at a period of his life when he was going from strength to strength.
Just months earlier, life couldn’t get any better for the well-spoken 23-year-old.
He was the toast of the Gold Coast in January after claiming our richest race, the $2million Magic Millions 2YO Classic on Unencumbered.
It was his first big race win and marked the day he emerged out of his twin brother Tommy’s shadow as a star jockey in his own right.
Three weeks later he married the love of his life, Whitney Schofield and then left Australia to start a four-month riding stint in Singapore in late February. It was a contract any young jockey would envy. The priceless experience that would catapult him onto the international stage and would have local trainers fighting over his services when he returned to Australia.
But tragically that day won’t come.
Tributes flowed for Nathan Friday as thousands around the world came to grips with his shock passing.
But there was one tribute that stood out to me. It wasn’t made up of a string of fancy words or any special memories with Nathan but it hit the nail on the head.
“We need more Nathan Berrys in the world,” the tribute read.
Indeed we do.
(Thanks Brad and the GC Bulletin again.)
