I was a top jockey who won £22million – but now I’ve found my second calling as an Uber driver

A TOP jockey who won £22million in the saddle has revealed his stunning career change – to an Uber driver.

Noel Callow has swapped one type of horsepower for another.

Callow has won millions in the saddle but now makes extra cash as a taxi driver9now

Alamy

The jockey is getting used to a different type of horsepower for a living[/caption]

The 48-year-old Australian, who has 1,562 career winners, decided to get behind the wheel after yet another ban from stewards.

He was hit with a three-month suspension and fined £2,500 last November after placing a string of bets on horses.

Callow, whose nickname is ‘The King’, was also a groundsman at the Gold Coast Turf Club racecourse in Queensland during another break.

But it’s his second calling behind the wheel that has given him the most joy.

Callow told 9now: “Well everyone’s gotta make a dollar and I like being busy, why not drive Uber?

“I was out of work for three months and I thought why not give Uber a try?

“So I did it and I didn’t know whether I’d like it, but I love it.

‌”You meet some interesting people and I really enjoy doing it.”

Callow won five Group 1s in his career and found a lot of success racing in the likes of Singapore, Macau and Mauritius.

But he was without a ride in today’s blockbuster Melbourne Cup won by Mark Zahra on 7-1 Without A Fight.

Zahra won around £250,000 with his jockey’s cut of the winnings.

Callow summed up where his jockey skills are in demand at the moment by saying: “I’m Brad Pitt in Asia and I’m armpit in Australia.”

So while it’s hardly a surprising he didn’t get a leg up in the ‘race that stops a nation’, at least he’d keeping busy.

And one day recently he actually he picked up a fare for driving a passenger from the Gold Coast to Brisbane before winning a race at Doomben.

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