Jade McNaught made WA racing history with 6 winners at Belmont 14/09/2019 - courtesy Simon Merritt Western Racepix.
A young lady called Jade McNaught has recently taken Western Australian racing by the seat of its pants, and turned it upside down.
She’s what they’re calling a mature age apprentice. Most gun apprentice jockeys around Australia are in their late teens or perhaps nudging twenty.
Jade McNaught is 31 years of age and began her race riding career as recently as May of 2018. She’s already ridden around 140 winners, many of them for some of Western Australia’s leading stables.
Doubles and trebles were becoming more frequent and Jade was rapidly being accepted as an eminently talented jockey, when on Sat. Sept 14th she did something that made news in mainstream media and sent social media into a spin.
She won 6 races on a nine race card at Belmont, becoming the first apprentice jockey in WA racing history to do so. Only Frank Treen and William Pike had achieved it previously and they were fully fledged jockeys.
I got to meet Jade briefly during my trip to Kalgoorlie, and wasted no time in inviting her to join me on the podcast. There are few busier jockeys in Australia than Jade McNaught and I’m delighted she’s been able to include us in her hectic schedule.
There's a hint of a smile on Jade's face as she hits the line on Stageman, her 6th for the day - courtesy Simon Merritt Western Racepix