Chloe off and racing with a win

Daughter’s special feat has dad wiping away the tears

IT was a dream come true for 20-year-old apprentice Chloe Wells when she landed a winner at her first race ride in Devonport on Sunday.

Wells partnered Gee Gees Cricket ($12) to an all-theway victory in the Happy Mother’s Day Benchmark 66 Handicap over 1350m.

What made the win more special was that it was aboard a horse trained by Team Wells, which comprises her father Dean, uncle Trent and grandfather Leon Wells.

Chloe is the granddaughter of Tasmanian Racing Hall of Fame master of apprentices Leon Wells and daughter of Dean Wells, who is a member of training enterprise Team Wells.

With so much self-inflicted pressure resting on her shoulders and in her head, she did a good job just to get the horse to the barrier, let alone win.

But she is a Wells, and once Gee Gees Cricket jumped cleanly and found the lead, everything she had been taught just fell into place.

The apprentice was elated after the win and the screams of joy from a plethora of family and friends who packed the grandstand to cheer home the talented young rider were a testament to her popularity.

“I’m just rapt to be out here riding in races and to land a winner at my first race ride is unbelievable,” Wells said.

“It’s a bit of an emotional roller coaster and the enormity of what I’ve done hasn’t really sunk in yet.

“All I’ve wanted ever since I was a young teenager was to be a jockey, but Mum and Dad said I had to finish school and college before I could do it, so I did all that and here I am.”

Dean Wells, not known as an emotional man, was wiping tears from his cheeks when he wandered into the unsaddling enclosure to help celebrate his daughter’s great achievement.

“That was a bit special and

I’m not usually one to show my emotions,” he said.

Chloe’s mother Meagan Wells said it was one of the best days of her life.

“All Chloe has wanted to do is become a jockey and she has done everything we’ve asked of her before becoming an apprentice,” Meagan said.

“This win at her first ride is the result of a lot of hard work on her part and a great amount of determination.”

Very few apprentices win their first race ride and the first to congratulate her was fellow apprentice Codi Jordan, who rode against her in the race aboard Date Night.

Jordan ended the meeting with a treble, so it would be fair to say apprentices dominated the nine-race card, although Brendon McCoull landed a double to creep closer to the top of the jockeys’ premiership table.