South Australia’s Apprentice Academy has welcomed three new inductees, Stephy Wright, Jemma Gutte and Ashlee Stone.
Wright was born and bred in Darwin and is apprenticed to Heather Lehmann at Murray Bridge, Gutte, who has a background in eventing and showjumping, will work for Ryan Hannemann, while Stone, who also comes from an equestrian background, is with Bill Bogarts.
“Racing is all I want to do, it’s what I love, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I love waking up, the early mornings, the hard days, it all pays off, it’s just what I love,” Wright told Racing SA.
“It’s been a long journey, especially from Darwin and moving here. And I was told I wasn’t going to make it, saying I wasn’t strong enough; I could never hold anything. Saying I was weak, I’m not going to make it, so that sort of made me want to do it more and prove them wrong.”
Gutte never wanted to be a jockey until she started working extensively with thoroughbreds.
“I just loved going out of the gates, loved going around, it was just so much fun, so after that I just continued onto the path and started in the trackwork development program, and then it all kicked off,” she said.
Stone, who didn’t start riding lessons until she was 14, is passionate about younger horses.
“The biggest goal for me is taking that horse I’ve broken in, started all the way to jump outs and now the next step trials, and then getting them to a race and riding them in a race – taking them from all the way at the start, to all the way through to winning a race, that would be the biggest win for me,” she said.