Apprentice jockey

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

Name: Gemma Sliz

Job title: Apprentice jockey

Age: 22


Working hours: 5am to 4.30pm with three hours off from midday. Any day can involve travel to race meetings

Employer: Horse trainer Karen Fursdon; other trainers; self-employment once qualified

Pay: Stablehands earn around $8 an hour. Apprentice jockey earnings depend on the number of rides, ability and success. A losing ride earns $45. Placegetters get 2.5 per cent of stakes. Race earnings are held in trust until the jockey completes the four to five-year apprenticeship, when high achievers could have an $80,000 nest egg

Qualifications needed: Keenness and a good knowledge of horses

Career prospects: Self-employed professional jockey, trainer, horse breeder

Q. What do you do?

A. I get to the racetrack at 5.30am and ride a couple of horses for other trainers. Karen arrives around 6am and then I ride our horses. About 9.30 we go home, give the horses breakfast and then have our breakfast.

Between 10.30 and 12 when we have lunch we'll tidy up the yards, bush the horses, pull out their manes. From 12 until three you could sleep, but that's when the nominations for the races come out and you're on the phone trying to line up rides.

From 3pm we're brushing horses, getting hay, feeding and watering them. We finish at 4.30.

On race days I might get 10 rides, but I average five. There's a lot of travel to get around and I either fly or drive. When I won the Auckland Cup on New Year's Day the owners of the horse I rode, Upsetthym, gave me a car for a year. It's a huge help.

Q. Why did you choose this job?

A. I was 5 years old when I decided I wanted riding lessons. We lived in Wolverhampton, a city in England, just an ordinary family with no connections to horses.

I did show jumping and eventing, but that's really expensive. I watched the Grand National on telly a couple of times and thought that looked like fun.

I did one year of my apprenticeship in England, but it is really hard for women to get rides there. I've been here three years on a working visa and I've just got the papers to apply for residency.

Q. What sort of training do you get?

A. I go to apprentice school every two weeks, where we learn all about horses, their manners and so on. We watch tapes of races. The riding master teaches you about riding. The rest of it comes from learning on the job.

The best part is the horses. They are amazing animals. They go 40 miles per hour [64km/h] and have amazing ability and agility. I wouldn't want to do anything else. I love working outside, an office wouldn't suit me.

The worst bit is getting up early, but once you are up, you are up. Other jockeys don't like the wasting - getting their weight down before a race - but I weigh 45kg so I don't have to worry about it. To waste they have special diets and have saunas and spas before the races.

Q. Why is the job important?

A. I think we do a service for the public. People love to go to the races. It is good fun, a good sport and a good day out. The best thing that has ever happened was winning the Auckland Cup. It was amazing. It still hasn't sunk in.

Q. What are your goals?

A. I'll become a professional jockey and in five years I'd like to be still in New Zealand and near the top of the premiership table. You get a great chance to travel abroad. As a professional you don't have to work in stables, but I would like to and to continue to ride for Karen. She's been good to me.

Q. What would you tell others?

A. To get into the industry ring the Equine Academy in Cambridge or ring trainers, or go to the races. You'll pick up lots of information from talking to the jockeys.

It's a brilliant job and the big plus is the travel. You meet lots of interesting and different people.