JOCKEY SONJA WISEMAN TO TAKE HER TALENTS TO NT
Leading female jockey set to join riding ranks in Northern Territory
WHAT started as a joke with partner Braydn Swaffer has turned into a fresh career move for leading north Queensland jockey Sonja Wiseman.
The Cairns-based hoop will take her talents west to the Northern Territory next month after Swaffer, an onand-off jockey himself, depending on his work and weight, accepted a new job in the mining industry.
Swaffer will continue to ride trackwork, with his new job likely to keep him from riding full-time, while Wiseman will join the NT jockey ranks.
“I probably was not really looking for a move but Braydn got offered a mining job and we were joking around about it,” Wiseman said.
“And, I just said ‘why do we not just do it?’ We have been here around Cairns and done it around here, Australia is a big place, we may as well cover a bit of ground and see a little bit more than what we have.
“We started organising it all and we will go from there.
“Change is as good as a holiday.”
The 2016 Cairns Cup winner has already been sounded out by leading Darwin trainer Phil Cole and dual trainerjockey Carl Spry for rides once she lands in the Territory.
The NT is one of the states or territories of Australia that allows dual listed trainer and jockeys, a concept Wiseman hoped to tackle further down the line in her career.
“I would not mind going down that track eventually — of training my own — not straight away, but I would like to look at it,” Wiseman said.
“There is no better feeling that riding a winner on a horse that you have been with since they are a baby and that would be the same with training.”
Wiseman uses a whip with her right hand when she rides and believes the anticlockwise racing in the NT will help.
The Top End racing fraternity are thrilled to welcome Wiseman to Fannie Bay, according to Darwin Turf Club Operations and Racing Manager Cameron Riches.
“It will be exciting to see one of the North’s leading jockeys make the move to the top end,” Riches said.
“Sonja won the 100th Gordonvale Cup for us on Idle Situation back in 2016 which was my last meeting as president.”
The pair will remain in the Far North until the Cairns meeting on Melbourne Cup day before leaving soon after.