CATCHING UP WITH CORNISH

By Graham Potter | Friday, September 23, 2022

HRO brings you another episide of its regular 'Catching up with Cornish' feature as the emerging, star apprentuice Jasmine Cornish gives us the inside line of how her career is unfolding

“I’m very happy with my start to the season. I think I’ve had a great start actually,” said Jasmine Cornish.

“I think I rode a double before I went on my little holiday (a week away in Bali) … and I was thinking, ‘I can’t leave now’ … but I’m glad I managed to pick up from where I left off when I got back and hopefully it can carry on this way for a while.

"Having regular winners is important … not just for the obvious reason … but also because it builds your confidence, the type of confidence you need when you get on better horses so that you can have the belief that horses are just going to run for you if you sit nice and balanced.

“If you take my last winner En Pointe for example. I don’t think I moved on her. I gave her a little niggle and, as long as she was going well, I just trusted that she knew what she was doing and we worked together like that.”

En Pointe and Cornish triumphed by a clearcut 2.50 length margin as the longest priced runner ($9.50) in the five-horse field in which her stable companion started at $3.60 … and the fact that En Pointe is trained by multiple Premiership winning, Eagle Farm based trainer Robert Heathcote made it another important success for the young apprentice as she looks to build on that developing trainer/jockey relationship.
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Nearly fifty percent of Cornish’s rides now are at metropolitan meetings, begging the question, does that percentage aptly sum up the subtle, steady, measured transition she is undertaking towards establishing herself on the Metropolitan scene.

“I guess so,” answered Cornish. “I’d say It is a fair reflection of the path my career is following.

“People have been telling me I should just stay in town, but I wasn’t sure and I was just sort of waiting to see what options came up for me. There have been quite a few and I have been taking them as they come.

“I have started riding work in town. I go in on Fridays for Rob Heathcote, but I haven’t gone in any other days yet.

“I’m still getting the feel of it. I’d never ridden work in town. The first morning I went I thought, ‘this is chaos,’ particularly looking at it coming from where I’m used to riding work. There were riders left, right and centre … gaps left, right and centre. It was quite a lot to take in at first glance.

“It’s all part of the learning curve but, on that first day, I did feel that I couldn’t rush into gallop mornings. I needed to just ease my way into it and learn about it how everything worked … but I’ve been there for the past month now and, yeah, it’s good fun.”
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On September 17, Cornish landed her first Saturday metropolitan winner when Zuma California saluted at the Gold Coast meeting.

Ticking that box is always a special moment for any rider.

“That was really good,” said Cornish. “I know it was only by a small winning margin, but that is all it takes.

“Boris (Thornton, who rode the runner-up Safework who Zuma California beat by a nose) gave me a compliment after the race. He pulled me aside and said I rode that really well … so again, I guess sort of acknowledgement helps with the confidence.

‘Boris is one of the strongest riders around and it was really good to be involved in a tight finish with him and to be able to get that Saturday metro win in those hard fought circumstances.”
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Winners rolling in nicely enough … that first Saturday Metro win in the bank … is Cornish always looking ahead and setting new goals?

“I just want the graph to be going … and that can mean different things.

“For example, I rode in town the other day and came away with three thirds, but I don’t call that a bad day. I think it is still a good day because I’m just happy having my horses be competitive. That’s all that matters.

“I have been on a high for a long time now, but I know racing has its highs and its lows ... and setbacks can happen ...so I understand that I have been very lucky all around so far.”
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The strong family support base is … and always will be there … for Cornish, but she is also developing a serious support sector from both the, sometimes noisy, punter brigade to the quieter support from the inner sanctum of racing participants.

“It’s great having the support from the crowd,” said Cornish. “It is also nice when trainers … like Rob Heathcote … have a big group of owners, who are lovely people, telling me, ‘we’ve been waiting for you to get on our horses … we’ve been watching you all of the time and been wanting you to get on our horse … and I thought, ‘wow.’

“It’s all very encouraging having owners interacting with me like that.”

At the time of writing Cornish sits one win outside the top ten riders in the Brisbane Metropolitan Jockeys Premiership, third on the Brisbane Metropolitan Apprentices Premiership and fourth on the Queensland Provincial Apprentices Premiership … a title she won last season … not to mention fifth on the current Queensland State Jockeys’ Premiership, just two wins off second place.

Cornish said she is ‘just happy having my horses be competitive’.

Clearly, given those statistics, Cornish possesses the same competitive instinct that she looks for from the horses she rides and they are probably just as happy having such a committed rider helping guide their fortunes.

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