APPRENTICE LOOKING FORWARD TO FUTURE

Barwon Heads local Alysha Warren can't wait for her career to unfold as the budding apprentice dreams of future big wins. 

Warren will be an apprentice to trainer Danny O'Brien, a trainer she started working for as a school kid after dropping her resume in the trainer's mailbox. 

"I'm so excited. Danny has been so supportive and I really can't wait to start race riding," Warren said.

Nine budding jockeys were officially welcomed into Racing Victoria’s (RV) Apprentice Jockey Training Program (AJTP) at a function at Flemington Racecourse  last tonight, before embarking on a four-year apprenticeship to become senior riders. 

The seven female and two male riders who make up the AJTP’s 2022 class are with Warren are Emily Pozman and Thomas Prebble (who are both apprenticed to trainer Peter Moody), Dakotah Keane (Tony Noonan), Jaylah Kennedy (Dan O’Sullivan), Ryan Houston (Paul Preusker), Jess Booth (Ciaron Maher), Danica Munro (Liam Howley), and Rose Hammond (Gwenda Johnstone).

Throughout their apprenticeship, the riders will be tutored by RV Apprentice Jockey Coaches, Darren Gauci and Alf Matthews, on the art of race riding, while receiving education and guidance from leading professionals at the Victorian Institute of Sport, Exercise Research Australia and other health and wellbeing specialists.

The select group, who range in age from 18 to 23, underwent a stringent talent identification process throughout 2021 as part of RV’s Rider Development Squad to gain entry into the AJTP.

Over the next four years they will develop their knowledge and skills across a range of areas including performance analysis, sports science, media, finance, and business skills, in addition to race riding, with the shared goal of emerging as elite athletes prepared for a professional career as a jockey.