As a high school student in the central north island of New Zealand, a young Michael Dee was counting the months to pursue a riding career.

James McDonald, Daniel Stackhouse and Linda Meech - just to name a few – were Kiwis making an indelible mark on Australian racing. Dee was aware of this and after leaving Napier Boys College at 16 he left home.

He became apprenticed to Kevin Myers for two years and steadily built up the strength that a competitive jockey needs.

Dee, the son of Richard Dee who trained for 20 years at Cambridge, was given a golden opportunity in 2015 to immigrate to Australia.

One can’t stress the golden opportunity enough. In recent years, Racing Victoria have installed a totally draconian method of enrolment for apprentices.

In fact, they have become the laughingstock of world racing by permitting just six apprentices a year as against over 200 in 1980.

The system is in such deep need of repair that trainers from all over Victoria will be asking Board members to overturn the current system.

So ridiculous is the current method of bringing apprentices in that two Irish jockeys were denied entry to Victoria to ride because of the many hoops and rules they had to overcome.

Robbie Dolan and Louise Day had to move to Sydney where they are now currently the State’s leading apprentices.

However, Dee has capitalised on every moment in Australia starting firstly with master Mick Price and then after leaving that stable, has ridden for nearly every important training yard in the State.

“John Sadler and Trent Busuttin have been really good to me and at the time when I was starting my Australian career, those people were really important.

“Sure, Victorian racing is tough and competitive but it’s just a matter of sticking at it, doing your homework and riding for as many stables as you can.

“It was an eye-opener to come to Australia, now I’ve fitted in and it’s really working,” he said.

“He’s a very hard worker, terribly reliable and I’ve had some really good success with him. Michael should be proud of what he’s achieved. It’s not easy in five years to establish himself like he has,” trainer John Sadler said.

Dee explains that riding track work, trials, and jump outs is the best avenue to gaining better and better rides.

“You’ve got to do the hard yards and whether its Pakenham or Cranbourne or even Flemington trainers expect you to be there, and I never mind the workload that goes into it,” he said.

On Saturday the last of the country cups in Victoria will be staged at Pakenham when they run their $300,000 Cup race which will be the last of the majors for the year. 

However, while Dee will be involved at Pakenham the expected Christmas gatherings throughout the racing industry in the next month will certainly not be a priority as for Michael Dee, seven years of hard work is still not enough to take a break and his excellent riding style continues to bear witness to that.