Star jockey Angela Jones goes from the Queensland outback to the Group 1 big smoke of the Tatt's Tiara

News.com.au

7 hours ago

She was the little kid who grew up in outback Queensland, thinking the Melbourne Cup was Australia's only horse race.
On Saturday at Eagle Farm, the jockey who was raised on a cattle and grain property about 100km from Clermont can ride her first Group 1 winner and also pass the magical mark of 100 wins for the season.
The Angela Jones story is quite extraordinary.
'When I was a kid, I knew what the Melbourne Cup was but I didn't know that there was races all year,' Jones said.
'My parents had no real knowledge about racing and neither did I.
'We would watch the Melbourne Cup once a year, I would get excited a couple of weeks out thinking I could watch the horses on TV and I thought that was cool.
'We would have the TV channel on racing for half an hour once a year and that was about it.
'I was home schooled up until I was about 15 or 16 so I had pretty flexible school hours.
'I would get up pretty early and I can remember sometimes being finished with my schoolwork by 9am.
'Then the rest of the day I would be following Dad around with whatever he was doing.'
Jones is one of an ever-increasing group of female riders taking Australia by storm.
She has never had a better chance to soar into racing's Group 1 club than she will have riding Tony Gollan's winning machine mare Floozie at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Jones has won four straight on Floozie since the mare came north from Victoria and she is fighting out favouritism in the Group 1 Tatt's Tiara, the final Group 1 of the Australian racing season.
If it wasn't for Jones' determination and drive to be a jockey when she was young, she would have ended up in another profession.
Parents Jason and Julie had no racing background and they assumed it was a passing fad when their girl wanted to explore the possibility of being a jockey.
'When I got into it Dad was of the opinion that it wasn't a career, it was something I was just mucking around with,' Jones recalls.
'My parents did say they wanted me to go to university and I was like 'I will do a gap year', because I didn't really want to go to uni.
'Even when I got into racing, I guess Mum and Dad just thought I was going to uni at some point.
'To begin with, it was like 'when are you going to get a real job and go and get a career?'
'But I told Mum that being a jockey was what I really wanted to do.
'She knows how stubborn I am so she was supportive a bit earlier, she could see it was what I was going to do anyway.
'Dad probably didn't get into it initially, he probably didn't get on board until a few of his mates started talking to him about it.'
Jones went to boarding school in Charters Towers and made friends with the family of local trainer Robert Kirkwood.
Robert's wife Sally is a horse instructor and it helped further the racing passion of the young Jones.
But she still had little idea of the path towards trying to become a professional jockey.
There was a pivotal moment one day when she went to watch the races at Charters Towers.
'I went to the local races and I ran into (former jockey and apprentice mentor) Shane Scriven,' Jones said.
'I said to him, 'can I be an apprentice?'
'I just had the idea that whatever I did, I wanted to give myself the best opportunity to do the best I could.
'I had a sister in Toowoomba, so I asked if Toowoomba was a good place to start.
'As a kid, I thought I wanted to grow up and do something with horses.
'Racing seemed pretty cool but it didn't seem to be something I would be able to do.
'I just didn't know anyone that did it or how to get into it.
'But it all really started to happen from that chat with Shane.'
Jones is known for being as calm as a millpond and she has approached the week of her big Group 1 opportunity in the same way as any other week.
It may be because she still has to pinch herself that she gets the chance to ride horses for a living.
'I will just treat the Tatt's Tiara like it is any other race,' Jones said.
'For me, it all started with a connection with horses.
'I was just happy that I got a job with horses, which was always my dream.
'I'm just happy being out there and I guess I forget about a lot of other things when I get on a horse.
'If you get to a point where you are trying too hard, you can over think things and make the wrong decisions.'
Apart from hoping that Floozie elevates her into the Group 1 club, Jones can tick off another major milestone at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
She currently sits on 99.5 winners (including a half point for a dead heat) in the Australian jockeys' premiership this season.