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Apprentice Kelsey Lenton set for debut rides

31 March 2022

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By Jordan Gerrans

A week spent learning and experiencing life with one of hottest stables in Australia was the making of apprentice Kelsey Lenton.

That is the view of her boss Georgie Holt and the young rider herself as Lenton is about make her debut appearance on race day this Saturday afternoon at Bowen.

Lenton does not come from a racing background, cutting her teeth competing in barrel racing and rodeo, before eventually getting a job as a stable hand in Townsville, which led to an apprenticeship as a jockey.

While the 19-year-old was progressing smoothly in North Queensland under Holt and her husband Aidan, a former Brisbane-based rider, it was not until Lenton spent a week with the Steven O'Dea and Matthew Hoysted barn at Eagle Farm that her riding career really took off.

She rode work and in trials for O'Dea and Hoysted and was taken under the wing of in-form hoop Boris Thornton while Ben Thompson also guided the apprentice jockey.

Georgie and Aidan have long been associated with O’Dea and Georgie believes Lenton came back a different rider after seven days in South East Queensland.

“Once she came home from there, she had grown so much and took it up a notch,” Georgie said.

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“It gave her a boost and she has really got into it more since then, she now understands how to read a race better, doing her speed maps and all that kind of stuff, that had not come for her yet before she spent her time in Brisbane.

“From that trip, she gained a bit more want and interest around racing and the industry as a whole.

“She had great people around her.

“She got to take a lot of information in during a short period of time, which a lot of other regional apprentices do not get the chance to do.

“She really has knuckled down since coming back from her trip.”

Georgie and Aidan were keen for their apprentice to ride in trials with more horses than what she would have experienced in Townsville at Cluden Park during her southern trip.

Thornton worked with Lenton on the morning of her Brisbane trials while fellow senior rider Ryan Wiggins spent time with her at an Ipswich race day where she learnt the ropes of how a race day runs.

Lenton sat in on a few stewards inquiries to understand more so what it is all about on the day at Ipswich as well as chatting with Rikki Jamieson in the females jockey's room.

“It was completely different to up here, it was such a new level of the professional side of everything,” Lenton said.

“Boris and Ben were both great to me and I was able to learn from them.

“I was able to experience different sides of the racing industry from their point of view, speaking with the stewards and listening to the inquiries.”

Lenton first arrived with the Holts as a 17-year-old following an extensive background in barrel racing and rodeo.

Georgie Holt Next Racing
Steven O'Dea & Matthew Hoysted Next Racing
Boris Thornton Next Racing

Riding in barrel racing and rodeo from a young age, the disciplines took her around Australia as well as travelling to the USA to compete.

The strong influence from barrel racing and rodeo gives Lenton a massive competitive streak, Georgie says, which should be helpful through her time as a jockey.

The light-weight apprentice believes her experiences as a teenager only enhance her abilities as a jockey.

“It helps heaps,” Lenton said.

“It is more about riding different horses, over there you do not know what horses you are getting on in America.

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“It helps with just your general riding skills as well.”

The stable have taken their time getting Lenton to her debut rides, not pushing her in any way, aiming to wait until she is completely ready to be out there for the first time under race conditions.

Lenton says she “admires” Aidan – who rode 28 metropolitan winners during his time in Brisbane – and aims to watch everything he does in track work and trials to emulate that in her own career.

The young rider is in a position that most hoops would be envious of.

Just days out from her first race rides, Lenton was at the gym on Thursday afternoon aiming to put on size and muscle as she only weighs 49kgs, with most riders trying to shed weight before race day.

With three rides at Bowen on Saturday afternoon, Lenton has been busy doing her form in recent days and is hopeful she can snare on her first day officially in the saddle.