JODIE Riley is a racing hopeful who is continuing a family tradition with her riding career at Broadmeadow.
Jodie is a 25-year-old who cut short a career as a hairdresser to live her dream of being a jockey.
She has been with the Kris Lees stable at Newcastle for two years and has had a handful of rides.
With her family background it is only fitting that she is trying to make it with the Lees stable.
Jodie's dad Russell was a jockey who was forced out of race riding because of the battle with weight.
He continued in racing as a trackwork rider with the late Newcastle trainer Max Lees.
Kris Lees got a call from good mate and former Newcastle trainer Mel Eggleston, who is based on the Gold Coast, to see whether he would take on Jodie Riley.
Lees said he recognised the name and Eggleston replied that he should, because her father was riding work for his father when Kris was skipping school to get to the races at Broadmeadow.
"Jodie's dad was a trackwork rider for dad and she is showing that she is a very good horsewoman who is a hard worker that can make it," Kris Lees said.
Jodie said she was still getting plenty of advice from her dad as she tried to make it in racing.
Russell was with Jodie when she rode at Scone on Monday.
"I suppose dad's love of racing influenced me to get into riding but it is the best thing I could have done getting this apprenticeship with Kris," she said.
"I know how hard it will be to succeed but I am loving every minute of my new career."
Astute Newcastle trainer Alan Scorse has sent his grey speedster Looking Fur Lang for two races in Brisbane.
Looking Fur Lang was transported to Brisbane on Tuesday and Scorse's son Mathew will be in charge of the sprinter for the 10-day trip away.
It is being stabled with Brian Smith's operation and will run at Eagle Farm over 1200m tomorrow and over 1350m at Doomben the following Saturday.
Looking Fur Lang is a duffer in the wet and that was the reason for the decision to have another interstate raid with the horse.
Scorse took Looking Fur Lang to Melbourne two years ago and he saluted in the Grey Stars Classic at Flemington on Oaks Day.
"He has not raced for a month because of the wet tracks in Sydney," Scorse said.
"He has just been sitting in his box, because he does not go one inch in the wet. I thought he might as well head north and get some racing into him.
"The race this Saturday and next week are not behind him as long as the tracks are firm.
"I am still hoping he will be going good enough to aim at our Newmarket at Newcastle late in the autumn."
Champion Newcastle jockey Allan Robinson is in great form but his winning strike rate could have been better.
Robinson rode a winning double in consecutive races at Newcastle on Saturday, backed it up with two more winners at Scone on Monday and another at Taree on Tuesday.
He was to ride the final winner but had to give up the ride.
"I got whacked in the melon by my horse behind the barriers in an early race and I had a splitting headache," Robinson said.
"I didn't think I could do my last two rides justice, so I pulled the pin and of course one of them won."
Robinson is still having his usual trips to the stewards' room.
On Saturday at Broadmeadow in race four, he was questioned after steward David Dyson, who was positioned at the 600m mark, reported that he saw Robinson (on board Starlist) take some looks to his outside and then make comments to Andrew Gibbons (riding Hilight).
"I said to Gibbo where are the others, have they all fallen, because we were so far in front," Robinson said of the incident.
Steward Steve Carvosso said Robinson was cautioned under rule of racing AR (3c), which concerns the outlawed practice of communicating with other riders in a race.
"Robinson was told that he can only talk to other riders about safety matters during the running of a race," Carvosso stated yesterday.
Robinson is heading far afield to maintain his winning form by riding at places such as Walcha, near Port Macquarie, today and Goulburn on Sunday.
Another Newcastle rider in form is young Alexandra Stokes, who has had five winners in a week.
But she will have to cool her heels for a few days because she was suspended at Taree on Tuesday for three meetings.
Mr Cessnock Robert Thompson has plenty to smile about.
He has been given the great news he is to become a grandfather.
Robert's son Simon and wife Alyson are expecting their first child.
On the track, the great jockey is maintaining a 21/2-win lead over arch rival and good mate Dale Spriggs in the Newcastle Jockeys Premiership at Broadmeadow.
Kris Lees was quick to pay credit to leading Newcastle farrier Damon "Herb" Guthrie after Lacada Siren's win at Newcastle on Saturday.
Lacada Siren had not raced since Saturday, May 30, last year when fourth in the Queensland Oaks but stormed home under Allan Robinson's excellent riding to win the 1200m Benchmark 60 Handicap.
"Herb has done a magnificent job doing corrective shoeing on Lacada Siren," Lees said.
"Her feet were that bad that I was thinking she might not race again but Herb worked wonders with her and that was seen on Saturday."
Scussy Moola won like a very promising horse at Newcastle last Saturday in the Nags Head Hotel Benchmark 61 handicap over 1200m.
But the four-year-old still has a long way to go to repay the faith owner Tracy Lowery and her husband and Scone horse trainer Peter Bloomfield have put in the gelding.
"We were offered a hundred thousand for Scussy when he was a young horse but Peter and I never gave it a thought as we would never sell this horse as we love him," Tracy said after the win.
Scussy Moola made it three wins from nine starts and almost $37,000 in prizemoney when he saluted.
Wyong Race Club has been inundated for its barrier trial session, which kicks off at 8.30 this morning.
There will be 17 heats with 114 runners competing on the course proper at Wyong.
Included in the nominations were group 1 winners Purple, from the Peter Snowden stable, and Vision And Power, from the Joe Pride stable.
Both have been nominated for the trials at Warwick Farm today.
"I think the Sydney trainers were just taking an insurance policy by also nominating for Wyong but it is still a great honour to think they might have come up here."
One of Australia's most promising apprentices was beaten in a photo finish with a difference this week.
He was bidding for his first sortie into the property market trying to buy a unit at auction.
It got down to a two-horse race but he was outbid.
The point here is that the kid will be just old enough to vote at the next federal election but has enough behind him from a short riding career to try to secure his long-term future with bricks and mortar.
If he is a true indication of what can be made in racing then maybe the racing caper is not going as bad as so many make out.
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