Top Jockey Jasmine Fawcett (9/9/26)

0:00Before the end of the day, we've got a great story. Young lady called Jasmine Forset is joining us. She finished last year in the top 10 on the premiership. Now, think about what I'm about to tell you. In the scheme of your own working life, Jasmine rode at Timoroo on the weekend. She rides at Cambridge today. She rides at Rickardon tomorrow. They're in two different islands. This is her job. So she's going to work today. Then she's going to work in the South Island tomorrow. Then she comes back and works at Kulpo on Friday, which is in the North Island. And then she goes to Rates, somewhere, either hasting to Rickardon on Saturday. And then she'll race Summer Oss on Sunday. So she might be one of the few people in the country who is getting in the plane and flying to a different island at the moment every day to go to work. That's a commute. Jasmine's on the phone with us. Now, good morning to you, Jasmine. You have been a very busy young lady. Good morning, Mickey. I'm no kidding, Ryzen. I'd like to think that I've got the same driver.

1:00The same staying pal. I'm just telling Tony Johnson all about it. So if you're just out for this position, where five years ago, you were a good jocky. And you were riding OK, but you decided to start going to the South Island to hone your craft and get more rides and get better. And that now seems to be spilling over to you being a better North Island standard rider. So was that the idea to go South, get more opportunities, and hopefully become a better jocky up here? Yeah, absolutely. It doesn't matter if it's a winter on the border in the cargo or a winter on the border. Obviously, it still counts towards the premiership, doesn't it? Look, it does. But just talking about that travel schedule for this week, how does that work? For example, you're riding today at Cambridge. And we appreciate you joining us on a workday. But tomorrow, you're riding at Rickerton. So when is the decision made that you will ride at Rickerton tomorrow?

2:00I presume the booking flights and booking rides needs to be 10 days ago. And when do you decide I'll go here? I'll go there? Or it's not worth me going all the way to invocargle for this day. So I won't go there. Do you plan that? Does your manager plan that? How does Jasmine force it incorporated work? Yeah, my agent is Darryl Anderson. And he does a phenomenal job. And we liais probably four weeks out of where we think the best possible chance I'll have for getting winnows is in where he thinks it I should be going. So sometimes you'll have a ride booked two or three weeks before the race? Absolutely. Yeah. He does he liaises. And so do I, with trainers particularly in the South Island, like John Blackhead, who is a big supporter of mine. We'll find out what we've got. And then we'll work it in with what we've got up here. Obviously my priority is to stay up here as often as I can.

3:01But you have to go where the winners are. OK, let's talk. Talk me through a typical day or next 30 hours of your life. You're racing at Cambridge today. That's easy. You'll go around, do a tough job, but it's still close to home. You're racing at Rikident tomorrow. So you drive yourself to the airport, park the car, fly down there, you sleep on the plane because I presume your sundoms are riding track work in the morning before you go. How does that all logistically work? Yeah, well, it's exactly how you set it. I think the biggest benefit I've got is that I don't have to waste. So I can drink a lot of coffee. I can eat a lot of food. I can sleep any moment of the day that I can. Like just before you've called, I've got myself a 45 minute sleep before I have to get organized for the races. So it's just about balancing my lifestyle as best as I can. OK, I know you're not supposed to ask females about their weight, but to be able to ride light, you need to be around 52 kilos.

4:02Are you somewhere in that ballpark? And for people who think jockey staff themselves all the time, do you even go through the McDonald's drive through? Is that a luxury ride out in your life? The McDonald's drive through is actually a common occurrence for me because... LAUGHTER No. Yeah, it's a time management thing, and it's very convenient. And I do walk about 50 and a half kilos. I actually have to remind myself to eat with such a busy lifestyle. So I'm probably one of the more fortunate ones in this situation. What about form? Because the horses racing at Cambridge today on the synthetic are obviously a totally different bunch of horses. From the ones you wrote at Timoroo, I think you wrote three winners on Sunday. And obviously to the ones you're riding tomorrow. So how do you do that research? Keep it in your head, and then I presume you've got to dump it because tomorrow's the whole new bull game. Yeah, it's a lot, I'd say, easier up here in the North Island for me, because you get to know all the horses around you

5:05and you get to know all the jockey's around you. So when it comes to form for meetings like today, I sort of already have a fair idea of what's going to go on. But whereas when I go down south, I do have to rely on a lot of the owners' input, the trainers' inputs and what they expect in a big key to it is the track biases when I do travel down south. There's a lot of us chairs who in life, just sitting here with Tony, some of those he's commentating rugby the next day, he's getting out of bed to radio, and we all end up just jumping on planes and going around the place. Do you ever get to a situation where, for example, Sunday night, you come home from Timoroo and you just think to yourself, holy hell, what's just happened over the last three or four or five days, or do you just get used to it? I don't think you ever get used to it. I didn't get home from Timoroo to 12. It was midnight by the time I had a shower and going to bed, it was without what I mean. So it's not something you ever get used to. It's just probably something that you have to deal with. It's just part of the job.

6:06So what about riding track work? Because obviously track work, you sort of need to be able to be at 330 and up and about. Do you still ride a lot of track work or during a period up the next five days, Jasmine, can you not do that? You can't do it when you travel. Obviously you've got flights to catch and whatnot, and I did take Monday off after not getting home till midnight, but I do try to ride as much track work as I possibly can, because I think there's a massive advantage to knowing the horses that you're riding at the races. OK, let's talk about you. Like I've known you for a long time, and I was very proud of you for breaking into the top 10, the last couple of years. When you look back on it now, and you think about how busy you are, and how in demand you are, does it make you proud of you thinking to yourself, hey, this is pretty cool. This is a different Jasmine Force than I saw five years ago in my life. Yeah, I guess so. I guess it's a good way to put it,

7:07but I do try to keep myself grounded, and I guess the other motivation is I love money, is for everybody else though. Because the pace for those McDonald's droids is the honesty. I love the honesty. That's brilliant. TJ, what are your views of money? You're a fan? I was going, oh yeah, no, I enjoy money. And McDonald's? Yeah, McDonald's. No, not so much. I have no cows, junior me. You're not 51 kilos. No, no, no, I'm about double that. All right, Jay, I love your story. I think it's a story about hard work, but you don't get a free lunch here. We need a winner. So you're heading to Cambridge today. What's your best chance of riding a winner all two? You can ride as many as you want. We don't mind for the sport nation listeners. Oh, okay, so we're expecting a bold performance from Ichihar in the first. Okay, it's $6 punters. Yeah, but I also like up in light, and I like the perfect one. So all three of those horses are trained by Glen Old, and I ride them most mornings.

8:08So I've got a good relationship with the horses and a good relationship with the trainers, so that could be a nice little multi for somebody that's interested. Okay, what about the next couple of days? I know you probably do meetings, meetings by meeting, but I also know sometimes you'll jump off a horse and say, do you manage your Darryl? We want to ride this next time. So what do you think your best chance of riding a winner? Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or even Sunday? Could you say, busy? Oh, that's a tough question. I think there's one of John Blackhead's, and Maiden Tutu, that I think he was very unlucky last time. That's racing tomorrow. I think he's a very good chance. So I forgot the name of the horse. I'm one day out of time, but I do remember riding him as previous, and it was very unlucky. His name was Gapit. Yeah. Okay, race one. Did Master Hunter surmise ride a last time? Look, you're on it. It's already 200 metre Maiden. I'm sure there's not that many of them tomorrow. Jais, so I'm picking this early. Hey, Jais, as I said, I'm very proud of you. It's a wonderful story for someone who works so hard,

9:10and is putting themselves out there and riding so many wood. I think there's a lot of people, a lot of pleasure. Your photograph, riding horses will be on a lot of people's walls as they are hot out of the racing year. So thank you for joining Tony and I this morning, Jais. To talk about your really interesting life, a good luck over the next four or five days. Thank you. Good on you, Jais. I love that. They're just so forthcoming and upfront about things. Well, no one Jais for probably 10 years. Look at you, you know, all the jock. He's like, you know, the funny players. You get to know them. And she was just a junior person, right? There's a lot of riders who run that 10 to 20, 30 bunch. They're a bit of on a horse, and they're not negatives. They're not positives. They just don't as ride the horses. But she has worked at her craft. Really, really hard. Got on a lot of planes as you just heard. That works schedule is totally brutal. And she's selling it and she's become a better rider. To the point now where she gets rides at Allersley against the OP bossons and the Michael Bick nabs. And it doesn't seem abnormal to see her out there. Yeah.

10:10So it's the case of hard work. You can follow her today at Cambridge on the synthetic autumorat record. And of course, those odds for both meetings available on tab.co.nz and on BITCHAT as we speak.