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Jamie Kah racings star

JAMIE KAH…A STAR HAS ARRIVED

The general public has a Saturday Racing Tips jockey favourite around the country and what a star she is. Now once and for all the efforts of Jamie Kah being the first jockey to record 100 metropolitan wins in the metro area and take the jockeys premiership. This will allow us to simply refer to jockeys as jockeys not as female or male. What a legend and the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival starting this week looms large for the new star of Racing. 

For many years the domain of men, women have struggled to make a mark on the jockey’s ranks in such a way that they are first chosen to take the big rides. Kah has changed all this, the old beliefs that were “female jockeys aren’t as strong as men jockeys” has now been replaced by “female jockeys can connect differently with horses.”

Ride the horse not the race

There is no doubt we have seen a new breed of horse understanding from Kah. Jamie Kah’s secret is that she rides the HORSE not the RACE. In the main jockeys get so bogged down on tactical angles of a race. They have these stories in their heads of where they need to put the horse in the race and who they need to follow. Also what the race shape may mean to them and what’s the track bias on the day etc etc. 

Kah does pretty much none of this and is unapologetic for it. When asked around Christmas time how much form Kah does on a race she simply replied “pretty much none”. This comment certainly struck us with total surprise. No doubt there would’ve been some sniggering in the corner from all time greats who couldn’t wrap their heads around what she was REALLY saying. Instead of having her head cluttered with tactics and plan A, B and C, Kah instead has a clear head. She can be totally present both with the horse and within the race allowing her to do things others can’t.

Racing Form is done just prior race in mounting yard

Kah commented publicly that the 5-6 minutes before a race when she jogs the horse around to the start. That this is when she is doing her “form” paying attention to the horse and the feel and sensing its energy. Is it a bit stiff on one side, is it fizzed up or calm, does it seem full of energy or otherwise. It is in these few minutes she makes a true connection with the horse and it’s as though she moulds to be at one with the horse as opposed to being separate.

BIG Winners at the BIG Racing Carnivals

The simple fact is that horses run for Kah. No clearer was this as the racing season progressed that the jockey change of Jamie Kah was considered a “gear change” so much was the improvement level she can bring to a horse. As impressive was the 100+ winners and the premiership. Perhaps even more impressive was the ability shown by Kah to head to the BIG Racing Carnivals and win the BIG races. It was in these big wins that the essence of Kah can be found. Here are some of her comments post the big wins that give the insight into knowing HER horse. She allowed it to do what it wants and not worrying to much about the rest.

Group 1 Lightning Stakes – Nature Strip 

“He’s Just unbelievable…I just let him do whatever he wanted to do. He wanted to drift in and roll in a bit late but I didn’t really care. I just let him do what he wanted to do. He was in a good mood”

Here Kah could feel he was in a happy mood and kept that going by not interrupting him from what he liked to do letting him roll and drift in.

Group 1 Doncaster Handicap
“its great to ride for these stables, this horse hasn’t won much (377 days between wins). We had a beautiful run and everything opened up at the right time he probably wanted to wait a bit on the line…

Godolphin have realised the importance of Kah engaging her to ride a horse of theirs in a Group 1 that hadn’t won for over a year. When Jamie Kah says “everything opened up at the right time” its only because she is present and patient that these things happen. She knew the horse was a query in photos so had him finish wide on the track, another nice win,

Group 1 Kingsford Smith – Vega One 
“That is unbelievable, I wanted to get held up on this horse a bit but not that much!! I have to thank Bossy who told me everything about this horse and I wanted to get held up on him because if you expose this horse early he overthinks things” 

Fair enough you could say advice from Bossy helped here. But two things, she is humble and approachable hence Bossy feeling she may be receptive to his advice. Secondly truth be known Kah already knew these things but wanted to deflect the plaudits elsewhere. Once again her desire to ride the horse not the race enabled her to sit and wait in an almost impossible spot for the gap to appear. She was able to guide her mount through to rush to victory.

Jamie Kah – a champion Jockey

Kah in some ways is very much like a footy coach. You hear coaches all the time talk of 90% of their focus is on what they can do the other 10% on what the opposition can do. Essentially Kah is focussing on her horse 90% (perhaps even more) with a cursory glance at the opposition. No doubt the ride of the year was Kah’s ride on Vega One in the Kingsford Smith. It was also the best example of her riding the horse and not the race, by not panicking the runs came. Her patience is another strong string to her bow. Her innate desire to guide the horse in a race in the way it wants to be guided is her true edge.

It seems that many trainers have also come to appreciate Jamie Kah’s way of doing things. Trainers are very much “horseman” themselves and they seem to have a real appreciation of Kahs ability to connect with the horse. This is as opposed to forcing a horse to be somewhere it doesn’t want to be in a race.

Kah also has two key elements going for her, she is very humble and doesn’t get caught up in the razzamatazz of big time racing. Secondly she lives at her farm where she breaks in horses. It’s a real ability for her to step away from the “race pressure” and just get back to what she enjoys, the basic connection between here and the horse. 

Ride the horse NOT the race

Kah has an innate ability to ride the horse not the race. This, believe it or not is such a new way to approach race riding. In a world that has become consumed in sectional data, track bias, speed bias, race shape etc, Kah buys into none of it. She connects to the horse and allows it to tell her what to do. This cannot be taught so its safe to assume that Kah’s edge on her rivals will be here for a while yet. It has always made sense that its hard for a 50kg jockey to tell a 500kg animal what to do but Kah is just showing this is true. And in fact it’s the reverse that brings the ultimate success!

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