KILLENAULE-born Amy Jo Hayes is making a real go of race riding in Western Australia.

With 20 winners, Hayes’ most recent winner at Bunbury on July 3rd, The Agency saw Hayes drop a kilogram on her apprentices’ claim to qualify to ride at Metropolitan meetings on Saturdays as a 3kg-claiming apprentice.

“That was my goal when I came out last September, to ride five more winners,” said Hayes. “I had winners at home that counted towards it and at long last I finished it off.

“There were three of us (apprentices) out there fighting to see who could get to the city first. Zephen Johnston-Porter and Chanelle Cooper, and I got my head in front, but they are not far behind. We got there in the end and it’s nice to get the credit for all the hard work I did.”

Amy Jo Hayes is indentured to Trevor Jones, trainer of The Agency. “His support has been enormous, definitely,” added Hayes. “He has given me three winners now and I’ve only had six or seven rides for him. So at least we are building a good strike rate together.

Supportive

“He’s been supportive and helping me out as much as he can. So does his wife, Jo, she rides out track with us as well. They’ve been very good to me and supportive. I’m learning loads and it’s all a good experience.”

Some close family ties have also helped Hayes to make the transition to the southern hemisphere.

“I have a sister living out here and she was doing the convincing to get me over. I probably wouldn’t have come otherwise, I’m very much a home bird and never left home until the age of 24, which was last year.

“When I got a bit of taste of freedom and a bit of success and a bit of sun on my back, I wasn’t thinking about wanting to go home. I fell in love with the place, it is busy, a bit of a working holiday, but it’s something I love, I love working with horses.”

At her first taste of Saturday metropolitan racing last weekend, Amy Jo Hayes picked up three rides with her best finish a fourth on Stylish Lord for trainer Russell Stewart.

STEVEN Pateman and Ciaron Maher both completed their sixth win in the Thackeray Steeplechase at Warrnambool last weekend when they combined with Stern Idol in the 3,450 metre contest.

“He was awesome again,” said Pateman. “A bit of pressure early but he actually jumped his way to the front, got into rhythm. He jumped beautiful and that’s what won him the race - too good.”

The Irish-bred Raven’s Pass gelding set the tempo for the majority of the race, but once the course switched from right-handed to left-handed, he was challenged by Leaderboard and Fabalot.

The trio were eyeballing each other for three fences until Stern Idol ‘half-lengthed’ them at the second last and began to draw away.

Pateman kept Stern Idol’s mind on the job once into the straight to post a 12-length win over Leaderboard with Fabalot third, both of whom had a 7kg weight advantage over the winner.

“I have no words for this horse. He does everything on his ear, and today was bloody brilliant,” said Ciaron Maher’s Ballarat assistant trainer Nikki White.

“He’s just a bloody marvel. The team at home, they’ve done a brilliant job keeping this horse up, and to the boss – we got it done, he’s rapt for the whole team.”

The win also completed a treble on the day for Steven Pateman, that held the added significance of including his wife Jessica’s first win as a trainer.

Jessica and Steven combined with Bitcoin to win the second on the card, the Alex Pye Electrics Hurdle.

AT Warrnambool’s Kevin Lafferty Hurdle and Thackeray Steeplechase Day, the Bevan Laming-trained Right Now produced the upset of the day to defeat the Shane Jackson-trained Loft, who was a red-hot $1.35 favourite, to make it three from three over the hurdles.

With Arron Lynch up in the Kevin Lafferty Hurdle over 3,200 metres, the Wrote gelding Right Now, a 30/1 shot, took control of the race at the third last fence just as Loft made an error that cost him valuable momentum.

Turning into the straight, Right Now held Loft at bay to ease clear and win by two lengths. Third was Willie McCarthy’s mount Normandy Bridge, trained by Ciaron Maher.

While jockey Tom Ryan and Shane Jackson were rueing that result, they quickly got back on track to win the following race, the Mark Primmer Memorial Steeplechase over 3,450 metres, with the British-bred Noonday Gun who is now unbeaten in four jumps starts with this his first test over the larger obstacles.