The first winner is always the most memorable for a jockey and this picture tells that story as Quaada Leung scores on the Garth Puller-trained Your Ladyship (Candiese Lenferna)
Quaada Leung had a magnificent day last Sunday and achieved the rare feat of riding a winner in her first day at the races.
The Hong Kong apprentice had four rides in all at he Hollywoodbets Scottsville meeting and was a 2,30 length second on the Garth Puller-trained Arkadin (New Predator) in her first ride, then a 5,15 length seventh on the MJ Odendaal-trained Clickbait (Canford Cliffs), a 1,05 length fourth on the Stuart Ferrie-trained Luneluck (Act Of War) and she then won on the Garth Puller-trained Your Ladyship (Mambo In Seattle).
Garth said, “She is very competent for her size. She arrived at the Academy and weighed 46kg. She has lost weight and walks around now at 42kg, which is far too light.”
He continue, “So they have obviously got her on protein meals and protein shakes or whatever to try and pick up weight. So it is not easy for her on the big horses.”
He added, “She rode for me in the first race from draw 5 and the horse was a little bit green for her, he ran to the left and she didn’t change her stick and ended up running second.”
He continued, “However, she is nice and balanced and she is quite self confident.”
He added, “In the last race she rode for me again. She was drawn 5 again and I told her that this time she must stay in that lane and said, ‘So if you start to drift away from the stick on the right, put it in your left hand.’ I had also told her to ride exactly as if she is at track, so if something is going faster than you then you just sit and follow it, you don’t let her run herself into the ground. The horse was well weighted and she rode it exactly like I told her. When she started drifting to the left she switched her stick into the left and she rode the horse competently with the left considering it was her first day in race-riding.”
Quaada looks at home on a horse and not many who didn’t know would have guessed it was her first day at the races.
She only briefly lost her rhythm when changing stick hands, which Puller attested was a tricky task.
He said, “It is not easy to change sticks smoothly when you are on your first race-riding day and your horse is in front. It doesn’t often go down well and a lot of things can go wrong, you can end up dropping the stick or dropping your reins and losing the race, but she did a good job.”
Garth drew an analogy of the difference between changing whip-hands on the equisizer compared to doing it in a race and said, “You can sing in the shower, but put on a stage it will be a bit different!”
Garth concluded, “Quaada has got a nice future if she just keeps going.”
He added, “Felix Coetzee sent both her and Chester Choi out here. He is a hard taskmaster and a good friend of mine and just asked me to keep an eye on them and I think both of them will do well, they will be worth their claim and as they get experience and get stronger they will make it. They will probably ride all over the place before they are allowed back into Hong Kong.”
Chester Choi rode a place on his debut.
Quaada’s parents watched live from Hong Kong and were justifiably proud.
