3 minute read
Apprentice Taylor Johnstone notches her first winner aboard quality sprinter-miler Dark Wanderer.
Talented teenage apprentice Taylor Johnstone celebrated her first winner when she partnered highly rated gelding Dark Wanderer to a comfortable victory in the M. R. F. Ferguson Memorial (BM76) in Launceston on Wednesday night.
Johnstone, who is apprenticed to Team Wells and is based at Brighton with Leon Wells, had only a handful of rides leading up to the meeting but delivered arguably the ride of the night to secure victory for the Sarah Cotton-trained gelding.
Dark Wanderer was first-up from a spell and went not the race without a trial under his belt and looked slightly burly in the mounting yard, but Johnstone had the lightly raced six-year-old settled in the one-out-one-back position where he stayed until the field approached the home straight.
Johnstone eased her charge off the leaders' heels and once balanced, the gelding powered home to score by a length from the fast-finishing Boom Dot Com with the heavily backed Le Cadeau ($5 into $3.30 fav) a luckless third.
Johnstone, 18, was elated and said the feeling of winning lived up to expectations.
"It's just an absolute crazy feeling to able to get out there and do that. I just can't believe it," Johnston said.
"The plan was if he jumped well, we would try to lead but if he wasn't that quick out, we would try and slot in somewhere handy and I was able to land him in fourth spot with some cover.
"I just let him travel and once we got around the leaders, I just pushed him out to the line.
"I just want to thank my boss (Leon Wells) because he's helped me so much and there are many others who have helped me along the way, and they know who they are."
Cotton was full of praise for the young rider who only turned 18 in May.
"I've known Taylor (Johnstone) ever since she arrived at Leon's stable and I am rapt that she has been able to win her first race on one of my horses," Cotton said.
"She's ridden this horse to perfection and no senior rider could have ridden him any better.
She is a hard worker and now that hard work is starting to pay off."
Johnstone began riding when she was a toddler and becoming a jockey has been her dream.
"I started riding when I was three and before my teens, I wanted to be a jockey and to get the opportunity to come into this industry is a real thrill.
"When this horse joined the leaders, I felt confident he would win and then kept on extending his lead.
"It was a crazy good feeling and like nothing I've ever felt before and I almost cried when we hit the line."
Cotton was delighted with her horse's effort and said his program will depend on how he comes through this first-up assignment, but the Newmarket Handicap is definitely an option.
She also confirmed Dark Wanderer would head back to Melbourne at some stage this year.
