O’Meara Rusike Looking Forward 77 Days Out From Glorious Goodwood

O’Meara Rusike and Eric Ngwane at Ralph Beckett’s yard on Saturday.

The L’Ormarins King’s Plate has a racing partnership with the Glorious Goodwood Festival in England and O’Meara Rusike will be looking forward to the latter event.

Zinbabwe’s first black female jockey took part in the Markel Magnolia Cup at Goodwood last year, a charity event for female riders, and became the first African rider to do so.

She then had a dream come true when winning the equivalent race at the L’Ormarins King’s Plate meeting this year, the Okapi Ladies International, on Pacific Green. Fittingly, Pacific Green is a Drakenstein Stud homebred by Gimmethegreenlight trained by Justin Snaith.

That was only the second win of O’Meara’s career.

O’Meara will not be in the riding line up for the Magnolia Cup this year but will definitely be in attendance.

O’Meara, considering her humble beginnings, must pinch herself everyday when waking up to ride work on the hallowed training tracks of racing headquarters, Newmarket in the U.K., where she workrides for Ralph Beckett Racing together with South African jockey Eric Ngwane.

O’Meara credits her adoptive parents and turbulent childhood for her achievement.

Orphaned at a young age O’Meara Chiedza Rusike’s journey to the racetrack started in 2016 when her adoptive father showed her an advertisement in a newspaper called the Herald from December of the previous year.

She knew this was a path she was meant to explore, and she said, “Being a jockey was a calling because I knew nothing about it, except for Zimbabwe’s big race, the OK Grand challenge”.

“I was actually surprised when my father excitedly showed me the advert. I never thought of it as a serious profession but all the same, I instantly fell in love with it,” she added.

She started a five-year apprenticeship at the South African Jockeys Academy (SAJA) and was the only girl out of the initial five who stuck it out.

The program was rigorous as she stuck to a mainly vegetarian diet to maintain a required weight range between 46kgs to 48kgs.

Apart from sticking to lots of vegetables, fruits and water, she used to take a 2.7km jog every day. For breakfast she used to have a slice of toast, an egg and black coffee with sugar.

At the Academy she woke up at 4,30am every day to go to the track from 5am to 11am. She then brushed, walked and fed horses at stables from 2.00pm to 5.00pm.

Her first race took place in December of 2018 and was an overwhelming experience for Rusike who came in 6th in a group of 13. “I was frightened but as I went down to the starting stalls, senior jockeys were motivating me, and it helped calm me down.”

Rusike wanted to quit after a terrible injury when her horse lost control and hit the gates.

“She wanted nothing more to do with horses but we encouraged her to soldier on,” recalled her adoptive father, Perseverance Ganga, a few years ago.

“Seeing her make history as the first black female jockey in the country makes me the proudest father on earth,” he said at the time.

Rusike hoped that although she was the first black female jockey in Zimbabwe, she wouldn’t remain the only. In an interview in 2018 she told CTGN, “I would love to encourage the other girls to come here because it’s a great opportunity it’s a great thing. Like you get to experience the other side and they shouldn’t be scared or get intimidated by the boys. Because what the boys can do, us ladies we can do it better with determination”.

O’Meara only had 18 rides in all as an apprentice for one win aboard the Gokhan Terzi-trained Lunar Dancer (Philanthropist) on October 5, 2019, over 1100m at Borrowdale.

However, she then decided to leave the Academy and go went back to Zimbabwe, where she applied for work-rider jobs around the world; ‘Australia, America, and the UK, I sent out over 50 emails. I wasn’t prepared to give up. Two replied, Lanes End Farm in America and Ralph Beckett.’

She said ahead of the Magnolia Cup last year, “I have never been so alive. I felt I had failed everyone back at home in Zimbabwe, and this opportunity is the most fabulous thing that has happened to me. I ride five lots a day at Ralph Beckett’s, but one of the most rewarding parts is the time I spend with the horses in the stable, this was something I never got to do in South Africa as a trackwork rider.”

Following her heart, she travelled to England in December 2021 to start work at Ralph Beckett’s Kimpton Down Stables near Andover, which is where she now works full time, predominately as a work rider accompanying leading British flat jockeys up the gallops including the likes of Hector Crouch and Rob Hornby.

O’Meara Rusike commented; “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. Strength comes from overcoming the things you thought you couldn’t.

“I have often felt homesick in the past, but I don’t here. I love learning, and I love the people around me, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

The riders for this year’s Markel Magnolia Cup were announced last week.

The riders set to contest the five-and-a-half-furlong race down Goodwood Racecourse’s straight include:

Caroline Miller – 72-year-old, racing enthusiast and supporter of rehoming of racehorses

Dr. Laura Toogood – Digital expert, businesswoman, media commentator and author

Eliza McCalmont – Work rider for George Scott

Emma Russell – Jewellery Designer

Lyn Comerford – Director of Strategy and Operation at Markel

Maryam Al Jaber – State Lawyer in Qatar and the first Qatari female trainer of Camels

Milica Dusanovic – Civil Servant and Naval Reserve Officer

Olivia Bowen – Television Personality

Olivia Kennedy – Owner of cleaning business, single mother and member of Cool Ridings

Roya Nikkhah – Royal Editor for The Sunday Times, journalist and broadcaster

Saffron Oliver – E-commerce and development for Castle Vending and family business Tayto Crisps