CATCHING UP WITH CORNISH

By Graham Potter | Friday, July 8, 2022

With three weeks of the 2021/22 season left to go, Jasmine Cornish has already taken 575 race rides this season.

To put that workload in perspective, if you take the average number of races at a meeting as eight and divide that into Cornish’s 575 rides … it means that her rides would account for a full book of rides for all eight races at no less than a full seventy-two race meetings. That’s a quite staggering statistic for anyone, but particularly so for an apprentice rider.

A strange example … maybe … but, if nothing else, it highlights Cornish’s terrific commitment to her career at a stage in which she is still very much in a learning curve and nothing beats managing the learning curve best than gaining experience … and, boy, is she making certain she gets as much of that as possible.

HRO’s monthly catch-up with Cornish gave further insight into the world of fast emerging apprentice. But, before we go there, Cornish wanted to show her solidarity and support for the jockeys who have sadly suffered serious injuries in the last week.

“It’s an incredibly sad time and I’m obviously thinking of the three jockeys involved, and their families, and hoping for the very best outcome for them all,” said Cornish.

As we all are.

Well said Jasmine.
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ON GOING TO TOWN FOR THE FIRST TIME … AND BEYOND THAT?

Cornish previously said she would go to town for the first time if Lemon Duchess, a horse on which she has already saluted on five times, took up that challenge … and she did that on June 22.

“Even though she didn’t win I was super happy with how she went and how she showed she was ready for town. She only just got beaten on the line,” said Cornish. “The other two I rode on the day were a bit unlucky, but she was the one I was going for, so I was happy with that.”

Cornish was subsequently in action in another metropolitan meeting (the Ipswich meeting transferred to the sunshine Coast on July 6). Does that mean that metropolitan racing … which was off the table before the Lemon Duchess town run, is now very much on her agenda?

“Yeah, but I’m just taking it as it comes,” answered Cornish. “I have asked to go there again next Wednesday. I won a race for Robert Heathcote at the Gold Coast aboard Platini and he has offered me two rides next Wednesday … one of those is Platini again.

“You wouldn’t ever want to knock back that sort of opportunity, so I will be going there, for sure.”
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ON STAYING WITH THE NORTH QUEENSLAND CURCUIT … OR NOT?

North Queensland has treated Cornish well with the rider making her mark early wherever she went. With the metropolitan options now starting to come into play, will riding at the North Queensland track still play a part in Cornish’s riding schedule?

“It was good to go up there for a couple of months,” acknowledged Cornish, “but the only reason I originally went there was for the big QTIS race … then I just kept getting offered rides and I kept going.

“Having explored Rockhampton, Townsville and MacKay has been a good experience, but flights are very expensive at the moment, so I’m not going to be chasing rides up north at this stage, but, if I am offered rides by trainers, I will consider it.”
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ON THE CHASE FOR THE PROVINCIAL APPRENTICE JOCKEYS’ PREMIERSHIP?

Cornish currently sits in second place in the Queensland Provincial Apprentice Jockey’s Premiership just half-a-winner … that’s right, just half a winner … behind Angela Jones. These two riders have the chase for this title to themselves.

“Ang and I are so close together,” said Cornish. “It’s like we’ve been going head-to-head … and it looks like we are still going to be head-bobbing all the way to the line.

“Hopefully, we can do that without any interruption, such as happened with the Kyle (Wilson-Taylor) and Jaden (Lloyd) in their battle when Jaden picked up a suspension. … but, yeah, Ang and I are having great battle.

“I’ve just got to try and find those few extra winners.”
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LOOKING AHEAD?

“I haven’t made any big moves yet or any big choices. I’m still happy to let it all unfold naturally and take it as it comes at this stage,” said Cornish.

And why not?

So far, Cornish has certainly made the most of that strategy.

A solid work ethic and the appetite to tackle and tame a huge workload will do that for you.

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