Kah closes in on momentous milestone
Jamie Kah is rapidly closing in on a century of metropolitan winners, needing five victories at Caulfield tomorrow (Saturday, June 26) to achieve the landmark figure.
While Brett Prebble rode 99.5 winners in the 1999-2000 season, with a dead-heat contributing to his record tally, no jockey in Victorian racing history has officially reached the magical mark of 100 metropolitan victories.
Tomorrow’s Neds Winter Race Day therefore shapes as a potentially pivotal meeting, with Kah’s eight rides giving her ample opportunity to build on her current total of 95.
Kah’s book of rides on the day are for eight different trainers with her mount in the fifth, Prince of Mercia, prepared by her fiancé Clayton Douglas.
Other key rides on the day include progressive colt Darceandermill (race one), who is aiming for three in a row for the training team of Jason Warren and Dead Krongold; Nikki Burke’s filly Musk Lollie, who is shooting for back-to-back wins in race two; the James Cummings-trained Dickin Medal (race three), whose last win came at Caulfield at the start of the year; Mick Kent’s exciting stayer Kinane (race eight), the winner of the Group 3 Frank Packer Plate (2000m) last year; and Richard Cully’s speedy four-year-old Pintoff (race nine), whose eight career starts have produced four wins and two runner-up finishes.
Kah, who relocated from her native South Australia to Victoria in 2019, has enjoyed a dominant season in the saddle, with her nearest rival Damian Lane some 36 city winners in arrears.
The 25-year-old also leads the way with 124 minor placings in town – Damien Oliver is next best with 113 – and her metropolitan rides have also earned more than $11 million for connections, giving her a lead of almost $1 million over Lexus Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Jye McNeil. Kah’s current strike rate of 20.10 per cent also sees her comfortably leading that category, ahead of Lane on 14.5 per cent.
Kah’s stellar season saw her bring up the 1,000th winner of her career at Pakenham in mid-May – becoming only the second female rider, after Clare Lindop and Linda Meech, to achieve the feat. Later that month, she also surpassed Michelle Payne as the most successful female Group 1 jockey in the history of Australian racing when she claimed her sixth win at the highest level aboard Vega One in the TAB Kingsford-Smith Cup (1300m) at Eagle Farm.
Should Kah fall short of the century this Saturday, she will have nine more metropolitan meetings in which to bring up a ton of winners before the curtain falls on the 2021-22 racing season.
Kah is also currently second behind John Allen in the overall Victorian Jockeys’ Premiership, with 127 wins to the Irishman’s 131.