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Brooke Ainsworth following in her late father's footsteps

3 minute read

The dual-licenced Brooke Ainsworth continues to be inspired by her late father Ted to this day.

The 30-year-old was moving through her apprenticeship as a young jockey back in 2016 when her father Ted passed away after a health battle.

At the time she was content as a hoop.

But, once Ted was gone, she then was spurred on to pursue a dual-licence in racing so she can train and ride at the same time.

Brooke Ainsworth prepared her maiden winner with the double role on Saturday afternoon at the Ainsworth's local track of Beaudesert.

"Once Dad passed away, I always wanted to get my dual-licence," Brooke said on Wednesday morning after a busy morning at the Beaudesert trials.

"I learnt a lot from my Dad.

"Dad had quite a few good horses in the early days, 20 or 30 years ago.

"I like being hands on with horses, I would rather do them myself, all the hard work myself."

Ted prepared more than 100 winners in his time as a trainer which included 13 at a metropolitan level in Brisbane as well as one city winner in Sydney, as well.

He also prepared several horses to top three finishes in black-type events.

Ted had a much bigger team of horses in his early days training but scaled back in later years when he was sick.

As well as her late father, Brooke has also been guided by veteran trainers Harold Norman, John Smerdon and Kenneth Deacon in her new pursuit as a trainer.

She had her first runner in her own name in May of this year and collected her maiden win at her eighth start.

Brooke has ridden one city Saturday winner in her career, which was aboard a Deacon-trained galloper.

"They have all helped a lot with hints, pointers and tips," she said.

"It is not any more important than winning on someone else's horse but you are putting in the hours with everything in the background when you are doing them yourself.

"There is a lot more time going into it compared to when you are just riding them for someone else on race day.


Racing and Sports

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