By ray hickson
With the whirlwind that followed her first city win out of the way, apprentice Molly Bourke is keen to return to Sydney today to continue her association with Zakeriz at Warwick Farm.
Sydney’s races are at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.Credit:Getty
The 19-year-old from Tumbarumba has only had a handful of metropolitan rides but can always tell the story about how she put six lengths on James McDonald, on runner-up Pretty Amazing, in scoring that maiden Sydney win two weeks ago.
“It felt a bit too easy, like I didn’t do too much work. It didn’t feel real,″ she said.
“But it was pretty exciting. The first time I took him to the city everyone was saying he’s an outsider and I was beaten just by a nose, and that was a big thrill, but to come back and win like he did was pretty cool.”
Bourke has only ridden Zakeriz twice, the first time was a month earlier at Canterbury where they were narrowly beaten, but she clearly understands the horse well.
She says while the Ned Whiskey Handicap (1600m) is a tougher ask than in the four horse field from two weeks ago, as he has to carry 5kg more even after the claim, the eight-year-old is so reliable.
“One thing is he’s a tough horse and weight doesn’t usually worry him,″ she said.
“So we’re not too concerned about that and we’ve drawn barrier one again, so we’re quite happy with it.
“He loves to do his own thing and he controls himself pretty well, he’s a sit and steer job if you let him do what he likes to do.”
It’s been around 18 months since Bourke had her first race ride but, even though she doesn’t hail from a racing family as such, she’s grown up riding horses and always wanted to work with them.
She used to do work experience at various stables when she was younger but when trainer George Dimitropoulos moved to Tumbarumba she was given the chance to chase that dream.
“I’m only five foot so all my life I always said I wanted to be a jockey and it just happened,” she said. “I said to my dad I wanted a job where I could ride horses all day.”
Best Bets: Race 3, No.4 Cool Kaap
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Best value: Race 1, No.10 Ring Ahoy
