Racing: Jockey Tegan Newman overcomes rough patch

Poser winning the Rotorua Cup. Photo / Supplied

Tegan Newman the Rotorua Cup-winning jockey could just as easily have been Tegan Newman the West Australian miner.

That was how life was shaping for the 27-year-old just a few months ago when she was battling to ride a winner or even get on horses good enough to win.

Newman was disillusioned with race riding and with one of her best friends telling her how much money could be made working in the WA mines without the admin of being a fulltime jockey, Newman admits she was almost booking her tickets to Perth.

“My confidence was down and I wasn’t putting the horses in the race enough,” Newman told the Herald.

“And when you aren’t riding many favourites and you are getting back in the field the horses I was on weren’t good enough to run past other horses.

“Back around February the idea of working in mines with my friend and not having to deal with all the stuff that comes with being a jockey sounded pretty good. So I almost got my truck drivers licence and moved.”

Newman is glad she didn’t as Saturday’s Rotorua Cup win on Poser, for trainer Kurtis Pertab, was the richest of her career and her third black-type success.

While better horses and an improved outlook has helped, jockeys on a losing streak will hold on to any glimmer of hope and for Newman that came in the form of a lucky bamboo plant gifted to her by trainer Ralph Manning.

“Ralph has been a great supporter of mine and when he saw I was struggling he bought me this lucky bamboo plant and, maybe it is a coincidence, but I have been riding more winners.

“I am so glad I didn’t give up and I am getting better rides for a wider variety of trainers and really importantly I am getting the horses out of the gates and putting them into the race and riding them where I want them to be.”

KIWIS STILL FLYING

The New Zealand juggernaut in Australia’s best three-year-old races shows no signs of slowing, with more Kiwi-bred horses winning serious races.

Kiwi-bred winners boosts the yearling and Ready To Run sales, but also private horse purchases — a crucial economic fuel for New Zealand breeders, owners and trainers.

Dunkel, bred by Sir Peter Vela, continued the trend when he won the A$500,000 South Australian Derby on Saturday while in Queensland it was Special Swey who won the Rough Habit Plate in his first start for new trainer Chris Waller after having been trained in New Zealand by Stephen Ralph.