JAMIE Kah made history at Caulfield becoming the first jockey to ride 100 winners in a season in metropolitan Melbourne following her double on Saturday.
At the end of the month she will also become the first woman to win the Melbourne Metropolitan Jockeys’ Premiership, her lead an unassailable 38 wins ahead of Damien Lane.
The 25-year-old rode Deep Speed for Tony and Calvin McEvoy in the second race before adding her 101st winner four races later, maintaining her 20% winning strike-rate.
“It’s a big relief. It’s been a very, very long week and I’ve had some really good people around me getting me through it,” said Kah after completing the milestone and thanking the McEvoys. “We’ve had lots of arguments and disagreements along the way, but they supported me from day one and to get the record on their horse was very special.”
With the pressure off Kah says she’ll ride ‘til the end of the season but will always treasure her piece of unique history. “It’s probably the most special milestone for me because it’s not just a female milestone, it’s all jockeys (in Victoria) combined,” added Kah.
“Group 1s are very special but this was a milestone that hasn’t been broken by any jockey before so that’s really special to me, something I’ve ticked off now.”
JAMIE Kah started as a two-year-old at the One Tree Hill Pony Club on the outskirts of Adelaide before heading to the Mount Pleasant Pony Club as a 10-year-old. “That’s how I got into racing as well,” said Kah.
“A girl in Pony Club introduced me to the racing stable. I’m lucky enough to have gotten to compete in (Pony Club) games when I was younger. A lot of people go right into being a jockey, but I think the games teach a lot about balance.
“Being a jockey is very difficult, so being able to be a part of Pony Club my whole life and growing up with horses has helped me massively.”
Jamie Kah’s parents John and Karen are former Winter Olympics speed skaters who represented Australia but gave their blessing for their only child to start working at trainer John Macmillan’s Strathalbyn stables as a 14-year-old.
“At that stage she used to work with me every morning before she went to school, every weekend and during her holidays. From the very start she could handle a horse,” recalled Macmillan.
Kah started her apprenticeship with Macmillan after she left school in 2011. She won her first race on Easter Saturday 2012 and within six months had won 40 races.
The following season (2012/2013), her first full season, she won the Adelaide Jockeys’ Premiership, having notched 163 wins in her first 20 months of race-riding.
Break
In demand and feeling the pressure she took a break from race riding in March 2015 to travel to Europe and be a tourist. She did some show jumping with a cousin in Holland, and rode some work for Jeremy Gask in England before returning to Australia in August.
Kah won a second Adelaide Jockeys’ Premiership in 2017/2018, before moving to Melbourne in January 2019 and riding her first Group 1 winner that March aboard Harlem in the Australian Cup at Flemington. “I didn’t want to move because Adelaide was home but I thought, ‘I’m going to have to give it a crack’.”
Kah’s rise has since been stellar, breaking the Melbourne race winning record in her first full season. A complete horse-woman, she also rehomes retired racehorses with her fiancé, trainer and jumps jockey Clayton Douglas, at their Mornington Peninsula property.
“To be able to rehome racehorses and give them another chance in life is really important to me. My favourite is Brax. I bought him six years ago with the intention of rehoming him, and he is still in the back paddock. I struggle to give them away as I fall in love and want to keep them forever.”