Episode 280: Jessica Eaton

Now in her final season as an apprentice 27 year old Jessica is totally focused on maintaining her current lead over Todd Pannell on the SA premiership ladder. She transferred from Melbourne to Adelaide in the hope she might pick up a few more rides. She has to pinch herself to realise she’s Adelaide’s top jockey halfway through the season. Jess says she’d received a few offers from Michael Hickmott to move to Murray Bridge before she finally bit the bullet.  The young jockey reflects on her childhood at Mt Waverley in Melbourne and her formative years at Monash and Nunawading pony clubs. Jess looks back on her first job with trainer Danny O’Brien and subsequent stints with Mick Kent and Mick Price. She says it was Mick Price who encouraged her to become a jockey. She talks about her inauspicious debut, her first win at Avoca and her first metro win. The latter happened in the most unlikely place. Jess talks of later apprenticeships with Brett Cavanough and the O’Sullivans at Stawell. She reluctantly recalls some nasty injuries. The jockey elaborates on her sixth and final stable association with John and Chris Meagher at Mornington. She speaks affectionately of her short but successful stay in Singapore at the end of the 2018/2019 season. Jess talks of the high standard of riding in South Australia and the lucky break she got on her first day of riding in the state. She acknowledges the best horses she’s ridden in SA and the trainers who’ve given her strong support. She’s a charming girl and it shows.