Jessica Kuhn comes out of the shadows with breakthrough win

By Jordan Gerrans

Riding track work has taken Central Queensland’s Jessica Kuhn across Australia and now she is off the mark in her new adventure in racing.

The Rockhampton-based Kuhn prepared her maiden victory as a trainer on Saturday afternoon at Thangool as Shadow Project got the money in a Benchmark 50 Handicap on the non-TAB program.

It was a fitting result in some way as Thangool was the track where Kuhn started her first runner in a race back in June of 2022.

It took the trainer 20 runners to officially ‘get the monkey off her back’, she jokes.

While it took more than 18 months for her to nab her breakthrough winner, the trainer is optimistic her second is not far away with a stable mate to  Shadow Project set to face the starter on Tuesday on her home deck.

Kuhn rides all her own track work and after injuries have slowed her training ambitions in recent years, she was glad to earn the result on Saturday on the grass of Thangool.

“It feels good, really good,” she said.

“The owners are happy. He is a lovely horse.”

It was Shadow Project’s fourth run for the Kuhn stable on Saturday after the gelding previously raced under the banner of fellow Callaghan Park trainer Kerrod Smyth.

The five-year-old had raced inconsistently in the three prior starts but found the right race under the urgings of top CQ hoop Warwick Satherley.

Satherley brought the gelding down the outside of the track and they just got the nod in a tight photo-finish. 

“We have had a couple of rough trots with horses we have had previously when trying to sort out problematic horses,” Kuhn said.

“We fell upon this guy after initially bidding on another horse in the auction this bloke was at.

“When we did not get that other horse, we needed something else and we got him. I know Kerrod Smyth quite well and he recommended me to the horse and he told me he would win a race for us and we have done it now.

“Trying to place him has been the hardest thing and this race came up on Saturday and the stars aligned.”

Kuhn works with a team of four horses.

She has turned her hand to training over the last couple of years after an extensive time riding track work for stables around the country.

Growing up in Rockhampton, Kuhn began riding work as a teenager before relocating to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and then South Australia for a period of time to continue her involvement in the industry.

After working for several high-profile conditioners, the CQ horsewoman aims to implement those learnings into her methods.

“I have ridden on most tracks on the East Coast of Australia and been down as far as Melbourne and went across to South Australia for a little bit,” she said.

“I got a bit of experience along the way. I worked for people like Graeme Rogerson, Troy Hall and Peter Moody, it was a great experience to work for such knowledgeable trainers like them.

“You take notice of what they do, how they handle things and try, take it into your own experience and take what you think is right and make your own mind up.”

Despite riding track work from a young age, Kuhn says she would have always been too heavy to consider taking out an apprenticeship as a jockey.

As well as riding her own team of a morning, Kuhn rides work for fellow local trainers Tom Bourke and John Wigginton.

She also does yearling preparation for the annual Capricornia Yearling Sale.

The trainer goes in search of her second career winner at Rockhampton Jockey Club on Tuesday in the Maiden Plate over 1500 metres with Divider.

Set to be ridden by promising apprentice Brooke Johnson, Divider has had four starts for Kuhn with the mare yet to figure in the finish in each of those race day appearances.

“This is the first time she has drawn a barrier, which is a good thing,” the trainer said.

“She has drawn outside alleys in her four starts for me. Brooke rode the horse in a barrier trial at the start of this prep – and rode her really well – so I decided to put her back on this time with the claim.”