ANOTHER LANDMARK SUCCESS FOR THE COLLETT FAMILY

By Graham Potter | Tuesday, August 29, 2023

You have got to love Samantha Collett’s sense of humour.

‘Back in dad’s will for a bit longer,” she said after winning on the first-timer Red Sniper for her dad, Jim Collett, at Matamata over the weekend.

Samantha Collett had only returned to her native New Zealand from Queensland, where she is now permanently based, to take care of a few personal matters, but she knew when she jetted out of Brisbane that her dad was looking to turn her brief stay into a working holiday and Collett was happy to oblige little knowing that her ride on Red Sniper would turn into significant family victory.

Jim Collett also didn’t know until late in the week that he needed one more win to reach a century of winners as a trainer ... so there was no time for the nervous nineties ... just the enjoyment of reaching that milestone when it happened, with the added bonus of having his 2017/18 New Zealand Jockeys’ Premiership winning daughter in the saddle for this landmark victory.

The result is yet another feather in the cap of Collett family who can boast a unique achievement in that father (Jim), mother (Trudy) and daughter (Samantha) have all ridden over 1000m in their respective careers in the saddle.

With some good-natured banter that takes place between them, Jim Collett might be letting Samantha know along the way that he is one hundred winners ahead of her in terms of training results.

If he does, Samantha will take that in her stride and probably answer back cheekily with tongue in cheek ... all in good fun ... that is, of course, depending on whether she wants to stay in his will for that little bit longer.

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