On the back of a record-breaking 2020-21 season, McDougall has made the difficult decision to leave Albury and is in the process of a move to Melbourne.

COVID-19 restrictions has forced McDougall to base himself in Wangaratta for the next fortnight, where he is then able to ride in the metropolitan area from September 13.

He plans to base himself close to Flemington.

McDougall became the first jockey to ride more than 100 winners in the Southern District Racing Association (SDRA) last season and finished second in the national premiership with 197 wins.

The 27-year-old is now excited to embark on the next challenge of his career.

"It's something that I've contemplated doing for the last, I'd say two years, since making the move," McDougall said.

"I've just been so caught up in the last two seasons, I've had a lot of commitments in NSW and I feel as though the (2019-20) season was unsatisfying, getting suspended, and (the 2020-21) season I was able to get some satisfaction out of. I just feel it's the right time.

"It's something I've always contemplated and I feel like my kids are young and I'm still quite young. I'm trying to think about the future and there's plenty of time to be riding around the SDRA. I want to see if I can get a bit more out of racing while I'm still young."

MORE SPORT NEWS

McDougall has established himself as the dominant jockey in country NSW since making the big decision to move to Albury three years ago.

He finished his apprenticeship with Albury trainer Donna Scott, the mother of his partner Danielle, and worked incredibly hard last season, travelling thousands of kilometres, to achieve his remarkable results.

McDougall makes the move wanting to leave no stone unturned in his quest to be the best jockey he can be.

"I haven't had many rides in group races but I rode my first group three winner for David Hayes a couple of years ago and as a jockey, I have a CV, and I've added hundreds of winners to it in seasons but I'd like to add to it some bigger races," he said.

"Eventually, I want to keep trying to progress as far as I can. Ideally, it would be good, but if it doesn't work out, at least I know I tried. I'm coming down here very open-minded. Obviously I've got ambitions but I haven't set any goals, I'm going to come down here, ride lots of work, show up, and if it works out, it works out."

McDougall makes the move having already established a strong working relationship with the Hayes stable. His team has already been in touch with other metropolitan stables and have attracted early interest from the likes of Peter Moody and Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young.

McDougall also added that the suspension of five Melbourne jockeys last week have nothing to do with his move, yet could open up some opportunities leading into the spring carnival.

"My team and I, we spoke about it quite aggressively, pretty much the second half of the season and two months before the season was finished, we'd sort of confirmed this would be my last season in NSW and we'd spend next season having a crack in Melbourne," he said.

"I don't know Melbourne. I've left the kids and family at home. I'm going to come down here and float around, I want to get in amongst it in the metropolitan area. I want to ride for big stables and the end goal is to ride in town, but whether that happens or not, we'll see.

"I've left the family at home because realistically I might be coming home in a month. Hopefully within two, three months max I can get the girls down and start living our life down here."

McDougall said he was not making the move to simply make up the numbers in the Melbourne ranks.

"I still want to be riding winners. I don't want to be going to the races, living off the riding fee," he said.

"Everything needs to pan out. A lot of pieces have to come together. We've had a lot of conversations, my partner and I, we all understand the sacrifice and we're all looking forward to it.

"A change of scenery is something I need. I spent three years in a row doing what I was doing in our area. I never got sick of it, but you spend a lot of time in the car and your mind wanders off and you do think about other things. Last season, I was thinking about other stuff. Before was about riding winners, as many as I could, wherever and I just thought, I'm not sure it's because I'm getting older or not, but I just changed my thought process a bit during last season.

"I'm going to give it everything I've got."

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content: