Parents proud of Galleywood Hurdle-winning duo Braidon Small and Aaron Purcell

The Queensland-raised hoop moved to Warrnambool in his late teens determined to carve out a career in the saddle like his father Cyril, who rode Australian champion Vo Rogue on the flat.

Lynlea, speaking trackside after Braidon’s win on the Aaron Purcell-trained Two Hats at Warrnambool on Wednesday, said his move was paying dividends.

“I remember sitting in a grand stand with him – I train a couple of horses myself – and we were watching one do a trial and I said to him ‘you know mate, so many people don’t get the opportunity to live their dream because they’re too frightened to move from the security of what they have’,” she told The Standard.

“He said ‘Mum, I don’t want to be 30 years old and wonder if I had have made it as a jumps jockey in Australia. I want to be 30 and know that I did or that I didn’t but I don’t ever want to be left wondering’.

“For a very proud Mum, I think he has (made it) and he’s only 26. I think he can tick that box off.”

Lynlea said Braidon, who won the esteemed Houlahan Hurdle in 2017 in what was her “most exciting day spent on a racecourse”, deserved his success.

“All he ever wanted to do was be a jockey and he used to ride around the paddock at home dressed in his silks and waving the whips, so he’s had plenty of practice since he was 10 years old to do that,” she said.

“He got too big to be a flat jockey and Paul Hamblin is a very close friend of ours, and has been for decades, and he drops in from time to time and this particular night he dropped in with his videos from riding in Europe and Braidon went ‘that’s what I am going to do’.

“The seed was planted and it was Paul who got him a start here with Ciaron Maher in the very early days.”

Aaron’s mother Robyn Purcell, who is based in Port Fairy, was equally as proud of her boy.

“It is pretty exciting and it’s good to get a winner on your home turf because there’s a lot of pressure for all the locals, they’re very competitive,” she said after the Galleywood.

“It was so nerve-racking. I actually have to blink when they go over the jumps, I am so scared something is going to happen.

“He (Aaron) said this is the best he’s had the horse looking so he thought it was spot on really.

“Even though it was a small field, it was a really top-class field.”