The 20-year-old is mulling whether to follow the trail blazed in recent years by Sydney's reigning premier jockey James McDonald and Jason Collett in a second Australian stint. Hutchings helped alleviate Sydney's winter jockey shortage in a two-week stint with Waller last year before flying out for an apprentice series in South Africa.

But he returns as a two-time group 1-winning rider, with a New Zealand apprentice title already sewn up. He is officially indentured to Jim and Greg Lee but riding the bulk of his work at Waller's all-conquering Rosehill yard.

"It's starting to get a bit quiet back at home and I'm pretty clear in the apprentice premiership over there," Hutchings said. "That's almost sewn up so I thought I would have another crack – a decent crack at it this time – and I'm here for about six weeks to see if I like it or not. If I do I'll probably stay, if I don't I'll probably go home.

"To see those guys [like McDonald and Collett] come over here and make it in town [helps]. It's a very good living over here and once you crack it you can just about go anywhere in the world."

The tall Hutchings, who admitted he faced a constant battle to keep his weight in check and is seeking to ride at 54kg in Sydney, has chalked up two majors courtesy of Soriano in the Zabeel Classic and Herbie Dyke Stakes this season.

It has been part of an education under Graeme and Debbie Rogerson at their Hamilton base and further polish will be applied by Waller, who provides Hutchings with five of his six rides at Rosehill on Saturday.

"He's a very mature young man," Waller said. "He's similar to a Jason Collett in that Jason came back a couple of times and each time he came back better. Young people always need chances and I got those when I was younger and it's the least I can do to support some of them.

"They do it tough, they work hard and to have one out each year means the right person takes advantage of it. I'm proud to be able to give something back."

Hutchings is still yet to boot home an Australian winner after just a handful of rides last visit, but came close when Waller's Electrifyin' was touched out at Canterbury on Wednesday.

And confidence won't be an issue this time around. "Just the professionalism and the competitiveness of the rides [is so different]," Hutchings said.

"If you're back in on the fence, you can't get a run here. It was a big learning curve and obviously I wasn't here for long so that's the main reason for being here now.

"At the start of the season the aim was to try to win a [senior] premiership and we didn't start off with as big a bang as possible so that wasn't achievable, but all the other boxes were ticked off.

"It was a big improvement though and I was in the top five riders in New Zealand with a couple of group 1 winners and we just went to that next level with the senior riders."