Damien Oliver

Damien Oliver

Damien Oliver after winning the 2014 Darley Australian Cup
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Ollie
Nationality	Australian
Born	(1972-06-22) 22 June 1972 (age 44) Perth, Western Australia
Sport
Sport	Professional jockey
Updated on 7 November 2013.

Damien Oliver (born 22 June 1972) is an Australian professional race jockey. Oliver comes from a racing family; his father Ray Oliver had a successful career until his death in a race fall during the 1975 Kalgoorlie cup in Western Australia.

Oliver's riding career started in 1988 and he completed his apprenticeship with Lindsey Rudland and Lee Freedman. His first win as an apprentice was in March 1988 on Mr. Gudbud, at Bunbury, Western Australia and his first feature race win was the AJC Warwick Stakes. Unfortunately he suffered a series of injuries including a broken spine in 1996, sustained in a fall at Moonee Valley. He returned to riding after that back injury and rode the Japanese horse Pop Rock in the 2006 Melbourne Cup, which finished second to stablemate Delta Blues. In the 2007 Melbourne Cup, he placed second to Efficient on English horse Purple Moon.

Oliver has won the Melbourne Cup three times, on Doriemus (1995) Media Puzzle (2002) and Fiorente (2013), the Caulfield Cup on Mannerism (1992), Paris Lane (1994), Doriemus (1995), and Sky Heights (1999), the Cox Plate on Dane Ripper (1997) and Northerly (2001) and the Blue Diamond Stakes (2004). He was also the regular rider of Lee Freedman's champion sprinter Schillaci (1991–95) and top filly Alinghi (2003–05). In the 2007 Golden Slipper, Damien completed the grand slam of Australian racing by winning the two-year-old race on the John Hawkes trained Forensics.