Four apprentices to follow for the 2024/25 horse racing season

One of the best ways to beat the horse racing bookmakers is to have apprentice jockeys on your side. Being able to spot the future generations of talent before they do can see bigger odds on your side. 

Jaylah Kennedy

The best known of these four, Kennedy has been seen plenty on the metro tracks in Victoria for most racing fans to know who she is. This is her third season in racing, saluting 68 times last season. Eight of those came for Tony and Calvin McEvoy from just 28 rides, a partnership worth noting.

Picking up rides for other big trainers like Ciaron Maher, the Hayes and Henry Dwyer shows that she is going to be given plenty of opportunities to succeed. It would be no surprise at all with the ammunition at her disposal if she doesn’t get a good bit closer to a century this season.

The fact that she has been used at metro tracks on a regular basis is a testament to her ability in the saddle. She has a 12% strike rate when riding on metro courses and 11% when she is riding in the country so it is great that she is able to keep that level going with better jockeys around her.

Zac Waddick

Waddick is a young man who is teetering on the edge of becoming a star. He rode 40 winners in the 2022/23 season and then 64 last season. There are already eight on the board this campaign, off to a very smart start.

His rides picked up more than 2.5 million in prize money last season, an impressive amount given that he has barely left the NSW country tracks. It is likely that he is going to get more rides in the city this season, with Brad Widdup providing him with the most winners. Still only 21 years old, he has proven to be a hoop worth following when the ground is heavy.

Alysha Warren

It’s been a bit of a slow start to the season for the 22-year-old. She had ridden 35 winners from 335 rides in her career prior to the start of this campaign. Just two have been put on the board so far but she has too much talent to be struggling for long. 

She was the runner-up to Luke Cartwright in the Rising Stars series in Victoria last year. Interestingly though, she has a stronger record when she rides in New South Wales. Six rides at Gundagai have produced two winners and two thirds for a large ROI.

Claire Ramsbotham

We are ending with a bit of a dark horse. Ramsbotham only had her first ride in 2024 and failed to salute on any of her 18 rides last season. Something has clicked with her this season, however, with seven winners from just 29 rides. Add to that five seconds and four thirds and she is a 21-year-old on the up.

Those winners included her first double on Monday at Grafton. She has a long way to go when it comes to maturing into a hoop that the betting sites will notice. That means that she is a jockey that it could be worth keeping on side at the country tracks until they do. 

We are only a couple of Group 1 races into the new horse racing season. There are a huge amount of races to be won all across the country each day so there are always plenty of opportunities for young jockeys like this to make their mark.