Australia may claim her as one of their own, but to fans of point-to-pointing in the South Midlands Rachel King fashioned her success within hailing distance of Oxford.
Her father, Chris, rode the first winner when Kingston Blount opened for racing in 1971, and his daughter went on to become a leading rider in the area until heading down under some ten years ago. Basing herself in Sydney she became a champion apprentice while riding for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott and has since established herself as one of her adopted country’s leading riders.
She has now won five Grade One races, including one at last month’s Melbourne Cup meeting where she became the first woman jockey to win the prestigious Gr.1 Coolmore Stakes. That victory came on Ozzmosis for Melbourne trainer Bjorn Baker, whose racing manager, Luke Hilton, is King’s fiancé. The couple became engaged when visiting Oxfordshire in midsummer and plan to marry next year.
King wins the Coolmore Stakes on Ozzmosis
Earlier this week King extended her list of scaled heights when arriving in Hong Kong as one of a dozen invitees to the Longines International Jockeys’ Championship where her rivals included British aces Ryan Moore, Hollie Doyle and Tom Marquand. Not only invited, but a winner too, for King won the first leg, a five-furlong handicap (main picture top of page), and went on to finish third overall.
A delighted King after her first ride and win at the Longines International Jockeys Championship
Local jockeys Vincent Ho and Zac Purton took first and second place with 20pt and 18pts respectively, while King pulled together 16pts.
King, whose win came on Oversubscribed for trainer David Hall, said of her mount: “He's looked after me and did everything for me. He was probably the perfect start to riding here at Happy Valley.”
Of her own performance she said: “I think it was a good first effort. The atmosphere at Happy Valley is unbelievable and I really enjoyed it.”
Through hard work and initiative King has carved out a superb career, but it all started on Britain’s point-to-point circuit. She finished third on debut when taking part in a novice riders’ race at Tweseldown in February 2007, and gained her first success at the same track 12 months later on Lady De Paris, trained by her father. Her final point-to-point ride came at Lower Machen in May 2013.
British point-to-pointing has given countless people a leg-up into successful professional careers, but King’s stands out as one of the most enterprising.