TWENTY years after retiring from race riding, Jamie Bayliss says his comeback this week has proved he was ‘‘born to be a jockey’’.

LAURA BANKS reports in THE AGE that the 44-year-old father of Victorian apprentices Jake and Regan, returned to race riding on Sunday at Geelong after a two decade hiatus and saddled up again for three rides on Monday at Moe. He is yet to return to the winner’s list but heads to Mornington on Tuesday hoping for better luck.

“You just never lose that adrenalin, that excitement, and I really only gave it away because of family reasons,” Bayliss said.

“My two boys are riding now and they are going well and it’s a good opportunity to give it a go myself.”

Bayliss’ last ride was in December 1994. He chose to retire after his father became sick. The then 25-year-old took over running the family’s Queensland property for two years before he jetted off to help Michael Kent in Singapore.

When he returned to Australia seven months later, he started training while again running the family property.

“I was more or less too busy to worry about race riding and family became the priority,” he said.

Bayliss rode 250 winners in his 10-year career and said the highlight was his win in the 1989 Ipswich Cup on the Bruce Brown-trained Dixie Kid.

In 2010, Bayliss relocated his family to Victoria and took up an assistant trainer’s position with Kent before he and his trainer partner, Lyn Shand, went out on their own at Cranbourne.

Bayliss said his weight was “better than ever” and attributed his 54.5 kilogram mass to an alkalising diet. “As soon as I started back, the weight just fell off me,” he said. “I can’t believe how light I am, I am lighter than I was 20 years ago.”

Bayliss said he was content “for the moment” to back riding in the country but hoped to get to town in the future. “It’s just like I never left. Driving home today, I was that excited, I was definitely born to be a jockey.”