QUALIFIED nurse turned first year apprentice jockey, Chloe Baker, celebrated her 25th birthday and found the right remedy in outriding her more experienced rivals to win the $70,000 Arrowfield Queen Of The North (1200m) on Shotgun Roulette at Port Macquarie.
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The Kendall-based Baker has only been riding for 12 months but her master and winning trainer, Wayne Wilkes, had no hesitation in giving her the ride.
“No one knows this mare better than Chloe,” Wilkes said.
“She rides her in all her work and looks after her and while she is a laid back mare she has a few little quirks that Chloe understands.
“Chloe deserved the ride and the win.“
Baker, who came through pony club, started riding track work to earn some extra money while studying nursing at the Port Macquarie campus of Charles Sturt University.
“I nursed at Port Macquarie Base Hospital for a time but I enjoyed riding work and because I was light I thought I might give riding a go and Wayne agreed to take me on,” she said.
“I can always go back to nursing later on.”
The win by Shotgun Roulette was tough.
Baker settled her in the second half of the field from her wide barrier and she was always the widest runner before circling the field approaching the turn and finishing down the centre of the track.
Baker was forced to switch her whip from her left to the right hand when the mare wanted to run in but once she straightened up Shotgun Roulette quickly rounded up the leaders to win by one and a quarter lengths from Kopite (Matthew Bennett).
“When I got to the turn I waited, waited, waited because I did not want to get to the lead too early,” Baker said.
Wilkes will now aim Shotgun Roulette at the Mid North Coast heat of the Country Championships at Taree on February 26.
“It is only three and a half weeks so she won’t need another run beforehand,” Wilkes said.
Shotgun Roulette was having only her 13th start and her first since running last at Randwick last October.
However she ran second in a Highway Hcp at Rosehill the start before that.
“She is a nice mare and she will take a lot of benefit from that run,” Wilkes said.
Wilkes, who moved to Taree from Port Macquarie in March last year, bought Shotgun Roulette for $8000 at a dispersal of Nathan Tinkler’s horses at the Gold Coast.
Wilkes trained a large string for Tinkler and his father out of Port Macquarie before Tinkler was forced to sell his horses.
