Racing: Rathbone makes up for the bad times

Jo Rathbone consoled injured jumps jockey Nathan Hanley after she won the Great Northern Steeplechase on Just The Man.

She knew exactly how it felt to miss out on a big-race ride.

Rathbone (25) rode New Zealand jumper Nicobury in the Pegasus Steeplechase in Japan as the final lead-up to the world's richest jumps race, the Nakayama Grand Jump.

She returned to New Zealand between the two races and broke her collarbone, being replaced in the Nakayama by Rochelle Lockett. Nicobury fell in the big race, but that didn't reduce Rathbone's frustrations.

She had no intention of becoming a jockey when she finished college. She enrolled in veterinary studies at Massey University, switched to a Bachelor of Science, then quit to take out a licence after schooling horses at Palmerston North for trainer Mark Oulaghan and deciding that career was good enough for her.

On Saturday, the nightmares she had with Just The Man at the fences on the Hill were quickly forgotten. "He just got them wrong each time."

Rathbone went to the end of the buckle on the reins on the second fence on the Hill the last time, but her stress quickly turned to enthusiasm 300m later when Just The Man cruised past the leader, Bart.

"When we went up the Hill the last time we were in a bunch of horses and when we went past Bart I thought, 'Where has that bunch gone, surely there must be something coming out after us'.

"I had a look and there wasn't anything."

At that point, Rathbone knew she was about to achieve what even the best, including two of her experienced rivals, Jonathan Riddell and Tom Hazlett, say they live for - winning a Northern Steeplechase.