Golden chance for Stephanie Tierney's new career path

By Jordan Gerrans

From training winners in her native New Zealand to riding in picnic races in the bush of Western Australia, Stephanie Tierney has walked a remarkable path in racing to lob at Bundaberg in jockey silks on Saturday afternoon.

At 39 years of age, the horsewoman will have her first official race rides as a jockey on Bundaberg Gold Cup day, which will be run as a TAB program on their sand circuit. 

Tierney has ridden work for leading Caloundra conditioner Stuart Kendrick for the last couple of years and over the last 12 months she has knuckled down with her weight and focus to purse race riding. 

While she has always been slight as a long-term trackwork rider, Tierney put an increased focus on her diet and fitness over the last year to prepare for her eventual new career path in the saddle. 

“Starting riding at my age is almost unheard of so I want to do it right,” she said.

Tierney’s journey within racing is a fascinating one. 

At 20 years of age and after working as a dairy farmer in New Zealand, she relocated to Western Australia and walked into the stables of trainer Warwick Bradshaw and declared she wanted to learn how to ride.

At that stage she had zero experience in the saddle. 

One of Tierney’s grandparents was involved in trotters in NZ so she says horses may have been in her blood from a long way back, even though she didn’t know it at the time. 

After a lengthy process under the guidance of the Bunbury-based Bradshaw, who she regards as a close mentor, Tierney graduated from riding trackwork to competing in picnic races as an amateur at tracks such as Landor and Pinjarra in WA. 

“I have never looked back really,” she said.

“I always loved horses and my friends always thought I would end up around them eventually.

“I guess you could say I was magnetically drawn to racing and the horses, it just sort of happened.”

The history books detail that the Kiwi had great success at Landor across 2007 and 2008, riding several winners on the amateur circuit. 

From there, Tierney headed back home across the ditch where she took out her own training ticket and prepared eight winners - according to Racing And Sports’ statistics – between 2015 and 2022.

Tierney is a close mate of Samantha Collett’s and the multiple Group 1-winning jockey provided her with her maiden victory as a trainer with Divine Ransom.

Collett’s mum Trudy Thornton also rode winners for Tierney. 

While her training tenure in NZ was relatively short, Tierney did have a number of starters in Group races.

She eventually made her way back to Australia and lobbed at the Caloundra track before landing a gig with Kendrick as a trackwork rider a couple of years ago.

Content with riding gallops and trackwork for the first year or so, it was a jump-out aboard Defiant Spirit early in 2024 that set of a light bulb of in Tierney’s mind. 

“I thought – you know what, I can do this,” she recalls thinking after the jump-out. 

“It started off as a bit of a joke between us all and then I got talking to Stuart one day and I told him I wanted to give it a crack.

“I jumped Defiant Spirit out on the Tuesday and then he raced on Saturday with Robbie Dolan on board and he won on him.

“We changed the way he ran in his races and that worked. He came out and won, that gave us the result.

“Me being a trainer myself in the past, you respect the work that goes into the horses a lot more and I just hope I can put that into my riding in races now.”

Conditioner Kendrick has been a maestro on his home deck at Caloundra over the last decade as well as being a regular force in city races. 

Kendrick’s latest apprentice says her boss has been a key driver in his fledgling riding career.

“I found with Stuart, we were on the same wavelength around the horses and how they work,” she said.

“I found him really easy to work with and that has been really beneficial to me to try different things with the horses.

“It is very similar to how I thought I trained when I was back home in NZ, not one thing suits every horse and it is about figuring out the horse as an individual as they are so different.

“That is what I appreciate about Stuart as he does not stick to one plan.

“He has been really good with my riding and he knows how to push my buttons to get me going and build my confidence.

“It was always in my own head, my confidence, and Stuart has really pulled that out of me and made me think I can actually have a serious crack at it.”

On her first day as an official rider in Australia, Tierney heads to Bundaberg with four engagements for her master: Hot Flamingo, Maximum Output, Under The Cap and Snow Show. 

The strong Kendrick stable does not often send horses to Bundaberg but with one of their big backers – Archer Park Racing – being based in the ‘Rum City’, they have travelled a quality team north. 

The Bundaberg Gold Cup headlines the program with a $18,500 purse with the team of Kendrick and Tierney presenting with topweight Under The Cap. 

Tierney is hopeful she can kick-off with a winner on debut. 

“Maximum Output he has been a favourite of mine for a long time,” she said.

“He is such a tough little horse and has a huge weight for Saturday. They are all good rides. Under The Cap, he is a stable favourite. It is awesome how it has worked out for me to get these rides.

“Hot Flamingo is a nice filly and I would expect her to run a nice race, as well.”

Tierney has her riding weight listed at 52kg and walks around comfortably below that. She will be listed as an apprentice and claim three kilograms.