By Garry Dell
Apprentice jockey Brooke Johnson bagged four winners from four rides in the biggest day of her short career at Bowen on Saturday.
The 20-year-old Johnson took her tally of country wins to 29 in less than a year's riding and is more than halfway to her target of 50 country wins before graduating to the provincial level.
The former junior show jumping champion has long held an interest, through her mother, who has a number of show jumpers on her property at Yeppoon, just out of Rockhampton.
Johnson competed in Queensland and national championships before switching to riding thoroughbreds in track work and working in the Rockhampton stables of Benny Crear.
"Covid put a stop to most of the show jumping competitions and I lost a bit of interest in the sport," she said.
"I became hooked on the idea of a racing career and began an apprenticeship with Ben before transferring to leading Rockhampton trainer Clinton Taylor.
"He has some really good horses and travels a lot throughout Central Queensland so it gives me plenty of opportunities to get my name out there,
"I've had the chance to sit on the likes of brilliant filly Chinny Boom and others in the stable so I'm really rapt on how things are working out."
Johnson piloted two of Taylor's horses to victory at Bowen, one for Mackay trainer Jennifer Hatfield and one for fellow Mackay trainer Joshua Manzelmann.
"It was only my second time at Bowen so it was a really great day," she said.
"I was very happy after the first two and delighted when I got a treble.
"The horse I was to ride in the fourth race was scratched and then I got a lucky rails run on Aidenabet in the last race and won.
"I am happy at the moment to be riding at the country meetings and learning a lot from the senior riders who are helpful with tips about reading races and where to be placed in the run.
"It's a big learning curve which I believe will stand me in good stead when I move up into the next phase.
"I'd like to finish my country apprenticeship claim before I go to the next level but might look at a change when I get to 50 winners."
Johnson, who can easily make the riding weight of 50kgs, is content with living by herself "and a dog" and honing her skills.
Fellow apprentice Kiran Quilty completed the female domination at Bowen on Saturday when she landed the third of her winners in just over a week with victory on a Troy Clive-trained runner.
Quilty rode her first Townsville winner for trainer Georgie Holt at Cluden Park on May 5 and followed up the next day with victory at Gordonvale on Holt's mare Hit Snooze in a Battle of the Bush qualifier.