FRESH from her latest racing industry honour, Clare Lindop says her career was built on a simple love of animals.
Last month the champion ex-jockey was among a short list of industry figures chosen to have South Australian black-type races renamed in their honour.
The Laelia Stakes – a 1600m Listed race for three-year-old fillies, run at Morphettville every March/April – has become the Clare Lindop Stakes, and in a far-reaching interview with TRSA, the Group 1-winning hoop says all her career honours can be traced back to being “an animal lover”.
“The joy and skill of riding horses is something I will never take for granted,” she says.
“Although my family had a hobby farm, I don’t come from a ‘horse family’ (and) I realise now just how lucky I was to have the opportunity to learn to ride at a local trail-riding farm, which was right next door to where I grew up in Wangoom, Victoria.”
In the full Q&A interview – which can be accessed here – Clare also speaks about how her three metropolitan jockey premierships have taken on greater significance since her retirement.
“During the season winning a premiership might not always be at the forefront of your mind, as you are more concentrating on each race day as it comes,” she says.
“For that reason, I feel that it means more after the fact; for example, to now be able to say I’m a three-time premiership winner is significant.”
Clare, who retired in 2018, also talks about:
- Her 2003 Melbourne Cup experience, when she became the first Australian female to ride in the ‘great race’.
- Her historic 2008 VRC Derby win aboard the Leon Macdonald-trained Rebel Raider.
- Being in the SA Racing Hall of Fame, and having a race renamed in her honour.
- What she misses about riding – and what she doesn’t miss.
- Advice for a new apprentice jockey.
