Tag: People

Multiple Grade 1 winning champion jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson started her riding career in 2004 and recorded her first win at Fort Erie that year. She quickly became Woodbine's leading rider in 2005 as an apprentice rider. Wilson won both the Sovereign Award and Eclipse Award as Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 2005, and captured both the Woodbine meet title and a second Sovereign Award as Outstanding Apprentice Jockey again in 2006.

In 2007, Wilson made history, becoming the first female rider to win the Queen's Plate aboard Mike Fox. Wilson has taken her talents across the world, including Hong Kong in 2008, captaining the Girls Team to an historic victory in the Shergar Cup at Ascot Racecourse in 2015. Wilson, who has dedicated her time and efforts to various charitable initiatives over the years, was named the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award recipient in 2018, honouring significant contributions to the sport of horse racing from a jockey. As of February 13, Wilson has 1,706 career wins.

If you were the lead in the next Spider-Man movie, who would be your co-stars and why?

“I thought about this for a little and I was thinking, 'Should I pick Woodbine people, or should I pick movie stars?' I would have to pick my wife, Laura, because she can be pretty fierce and we make a very, very good team. Plus, she looks really good in Lycra. If she was busy that day, I would have to go with Ryan Reynolds, from Deadpool, and Tom Hardy as Venom. They are epic in those roles, and I wouldn't mind spending the day, hanging out with the those two. I think my wife would understand.”

If you could go back in time and ride one horse, who would it be and why?

“This is an interesting one because you go back in time and there are so many legendary horses to choose from. But, I'm going to go in a slightly different direction because I had quite the crush on Altior, especially during his unbeaten streak. His grit, his athleticism, and watching him jump over these fences like he has wings – it just has always made my heart skip. That's something I'd love to do, to go over fences, but my agent [Mike Luider] wouldn't like that. There was one race, the Tingle Creek, in 2018, where the jockey, Nico De Boinville, talked after the race how terrible the conditions were. But Altior just sailed over the fences. He's struggling through this bog, and he just wills himself up and over them. It's one thing to jump over the fence like he has wings over firm ground, but it's another to see horse struggling with the ground, but he comes up and soars over these fences to win. It was unbelievable to watch.”

What is the best prank you've pulled on a fellow jockey?

“This is a tough one. There are two that were the best. The first one is when I scared [former rider] Gerry Olguin in the parking lot. He was getting his stuff out of his backpack and I walked up behind him. He had no idea I was there, and when he turned around, I was right in his face, and in a scary voice, I said his name. If you can imagine someone holding their backpack with one hand, nice and relaxed, and then screaming, that was it. He let out this blood-curdling scream and it was so funny. He walked away, cursing and laughing. He said, 'Why do you have to do things like that?' We still laugh about it to this day.”

“I like to scare people. There is a tunnel and a stairwell that goes in-between it at Woodbine. After each race, we have this tunnel that we can use to get back to the paddock. By one doorway in the stairwell there is a little storage area, which has a few different things in there. One day, I hid in a box by the stairwell, but I had to get in there ahead of time because I didn't want anyone to know I was there. So, I hid in the box and set my cellphone up in another box and had it recording. I was in there for about 15 minutes – this is what I find myself doing when I don't ride the card, getting into trouble – waiting patiently for my victim. It was quite the result… it was Jesse Campbell and Alan Garcia.”

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Sir Mark Todd, a two-time Olympic gold medallist and registered racing trainer in Britain, is under investigation by racing officials there after a video on TikTok went viral over the weekend.

Todd, 65, is best known for his career as a professional eventer but stopped riding event horses professionally in 2019 to train racehorses and maintains a yard in Wiltshire. The video is purportedly from an eventing clinic held by Todd in 2020 and depicts Todd striking a horse with a sizable tree branch after the animal balks at a water obstacle. Todd hits the horse at least 10 times before the nervous horse finally enters the water.

Todd issued an apology after the video made the rounds on social media.

“I wholeheartedly apologise to the horse and all involved for my actions in this video clip,” said Todd. “One of the main things I preach is about establishing a mutual respect between horse and rider and that patience and kindness is the best way to get results.

“I believe this is one of the main attributes along with a great empathy with animals that has enabled me to have a long and successful career in eventing. I am very disappointed in myself that I did not adhere to that in this case.”

The British Horseracing Authority released a statement Sunday indicating it is investigating.

“The footage seen this weekend of Sir Mark Todd hitting a horse with a branch has rightly caused anger and upset within the equestrian community and beyond,” read the statement. “His behaviour, for which he has apologised, fell a long way short of the standards of care we expect of licensed individuals and that we know is provided to the overwhelming majority of horses in training in Britain every day. The BHA is looking into the incident.”

The user who first published the video indicated that she is the rider of the horse depicted. After backlash, she removed the video from TikTok but later uploaded a longer version to Instagram with a statement, which read in part: “Whether I have rightly or wrongly addressed a situation on social media is not relevant to the fact that a top level athlete excessively and repeatedly hit my horse with a tree branch. I personally am not comfortable with how my horse was treated and at the time I was a 21 year old girl who was not brave enough to speak up about my concerns. Now if you are the age I was and would confidently speak up against a famous top level athlete with no reservations without any support then I commend you because you are braver than I am.”

Todd voluntarily stepped down from his role as a patron of World Horse Welfare as news accounts about the video hit mainstream press in Britain.

A native New Zealander, Todd won Olympic gold twice in eventing in the 1980s, and has a total of five Olympic medals. He has won the Badminton Horse Trials three times and Burghley five times. He retired from the upper levels of eventing once in 2000 before returning in 2008. In the interim, he trained racehorses in New Zealand, including Group 1 winners Bramble Rose and Willy Smith.

The post Sir Mark Todd Under Investigation From BHA After Viral Video appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Richard Baltas enjoyed a banner at Santa Anita on Saturday, winning three races and finishing second twice to create personal exactas.

The three victories gave him 13 for the meet and moved him into fourth place in the trainer standings at the Arcadia, Calif., track.

Baltas ran one-two in the fifth race with Miss Costa Rica and She's Devoted noses apart for a $31.60 exacta, first and second in the seventh with Sterling Crest and Carroll Girl for an $8.20 exacta, and capped his day with a victory by Cover Me Up in the eighth at a $10.60 payoff.

But three wins in one day was not a personal best for the 60-year-old native of Gary, Indiana.

“I won four in one day once at Del Mar, and three in one day many times,” Baltas said. “But I never ran first and second twice in the same day.”

Baltas has two horses nominated to the Grade 3 San Simeon Stakes for 4-year-olds and up at about 6 ½ furlongs on the hillside turf course on Feb. 20 and plans to enter one but was undecided whether it would be Vanzzy or Whisper Not.

“I don't know which one, but I think one of them will run,” Baltas said. “The race could come up tough.”

There were 18 nominations to the $100,000 event. Vanzzy was a troubled fifth in the restricted Clockers' Corner on Jan. 22, his first race in four months, while the English-bred Whisper Not was seventh, beaten only 3 ½ lengths despite going wide in the Grade II Eddie D. Stakes last Oct. 1.

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In a sport defined by patterns and trends, Emma Nordin is moving in the right direction.

The 20-year-old native of Sweden, an apprentice jockey in her home country, made her North American debut Jan. 20 at Gulfstream Park, finishing third by 1 ½ lengths at odds of 19-1. She has ridden once since, beaten a neck at 7-1 by Hall of Famer Javier Castellano despite a heady rail-skimming ride Feb. 5 at Gulfstream.

“It was very close. Of course I wanted to win,” Nordin said. “But, riding against these jockeys is such a great experience. Second is good, too, I guess. Not too bad.”

Both Nordin's races have come aboard Super Super Stable's Graceful Kitten, a 5-year-old gelding trained by Gulfstream-based Amador Sanchez, for whom she has spent the winter galloping. Nordin is named in two races on the all-weather Tapeta Saturday – Happy's Nice Candy for trainer Andy Williams in Race 4 and Sanchez's Bach in Race 7.

If the pattern continues, Nordin could be sitting on her first winner.

“I'm very excited. Both horses have a good chance to win,” Nordin said. “It would be very cool to actually get that first win here at Gulfstream.”

Nordin began her love affair with horses at the age of 7, when she and younger sister, Elin, competed on the pony race circuit. She started racing Thoroughbreds as an amateur in 2016, earning her biggest win in April 2019 on Soldier Blue in the Bronshandicap at Bro Park, located approximately 25 miles northwest of Stockholm. The horse was owned by Nordin and trained by her mother, Annica.

“I think it was always my dream [to be a jockey] since I started with pony racing,” Nordin said. “It's very exciting. I love it.”

Nordin went from amateur to apprentice in 2020 during her senior year of high school and got off to a fast start with four wins, three seconds and a third in her first 12 mounts.

“I've been riding quite a few winners in Sweden,” she said. “In Sweden you can be an apprentice for up to 70 wins or four years if you don't get that many wins.”

With Swedish racing off for the winter, Nordin reached out to a friend who exercises horses in South Florida about coming to the U.S. to keep her skills sharp during the hiatus. She landed with Sanchez, who has 30 stalls in Barn 21.

“I had like four months to do something else. I talked to my friend, who was riding here, if he could help me just come on vacation and ride a little bit, and that's how I started.”

Sanchez has seven wins from 28 starters during the 2020-2021 Championship Meet, with three seconds, six thirds and $192,460 in purse earnings.

“I'm so happy and thankful that Amador actually gave me those rides and that he supports me so much,” Nordin said. “It means everything. I never thought. It's such a big dream to do it, and come true.”

Nordin said she planned to spend another month at Gulfstream – with a jockey colony boasting the likes of Luis Saez, Irad Ortiz Jr., Tyler Gaffalione, Paco Lopez, Jose Ortiz, Junior Alvarado and Castellano – before resuming her apprenticeship in Sweden.

“The biggest difference I would say is the sport here is so much bigger. All the best jockeys in the world are here,” Nordin said. “I just feel like riding with these good jockeys always makes you better. If that's all you see then, of course, you're going to be more like them. I think it's the best experience I can get, and I'm very thankful for it.

“Hopefully I can come back soon, because I love it here,” she added.

Nordin isn't aware of being confused for one of the most decorated Swedish women's ice hockey players, a two-time national player of the year currently representing their country in the Winter Olympics, who shares the same name but is 10 years older.

“I don't follow hockey, so I wouldn't know,” Nordin said. “Hockey is very big in Sweden, but I'm not a big hockey fan. I love the horses.”

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