Taranaki Sports Awards 2001 -  Overall Winner

When Michael Walker’s storied career ended in 2022 he had won over 2000 races around New Zealand and internationally. In only his second year of race riding, Walker won the 2000-2001 New Zealand jockey's premiership with 182 wins, breaking the national record for the number of wins in a season. The then 17-year-old also rode his first group one winner on Smiling Like in the 2001 Wellington Cup.