Farr will dance night away if she wins Grand National
Welsh jockey Emily Farr might make a real song and dance if she wins the Grand National Steeplechase at Riccarton today.
Farr, who rides southern mare Faites Vos Jeux, has also performed on a different stage, as a singer and dancer.
‘‘I like to do something outside horses on my days off and I did a fair bit of musical theatre at high school and when I was at university in England,’’ she said.
Farr, a mezzo-soprano, has appeared in productions of Les Miserables, My Fair Lady and Carousel.
The 24-year-old has maintained her musical interest in New Zealand and is being tutored by Cambridge singing teacher Scot Hall.
Farr is also a Bachelor of Science graduate, with honours in equine science and thoroughbred management, from Oxford Brookes University, in Oxford.
She first came to New Zealand as part of a placement for her varsity course and has kept coming back, one of the attractions being her partner, fellow jumping rider Shaun Phelan.
Farr and Phelan both have mounts in the National, with Phelan on defending champion Eric The Viking.
‘‘He [Phelan] has definitely helped me a lot [with my riding],’’ Farr said. ‘‘We go through the replays together and he’s not afraid to give his opinion about my rides. But then I’m not afraid to give my opinion about some of his rides.’’
Farr, who was brought up in south Wales, has been involved with horses all her life and competed a show jumper for 10 years, from the age of eight.
She then followed her parents, who had been successful amateur riders, and began competing as an amateur on the point to point circuit, riding seven winners.
She worked for Chequers Stud when she first came to New Zealand and later for top jumps rider Craig Thornton.
She had her first New Zealand win in August 2013, in a highweight, and has lifted her profile with 10 wins over the past year.
Four of those wins came on the same day, at Te Aroha last month, when Farr won two hurdle races – on West End and Bahhton – and two highweights. She is unbeaten from two rides on West End and will team up with the Faaltat gelding again at Te Aroha on Sunday, when she will also ride Goosebumps in the open steeplechase.
West End and Bahhton are trained by Shaun Phelan’s father, Craig, and Farr has a remarkable strike rate for the stable, with eight wins and two placings from a dozen mounts.
She recorded her first steeplechase win in New Zealand when Faites Vos Jeux was successful at Wingatui in June and is optimistic about the mare’s Grand National prospects.
Faites Vos Jeux – which translates to place your bets – has had a win, three seconds and a fourth from her five starts over country. She made her steeple- chase debut when runner-up to Brer in the maiden chase at the 2014 National meeting and did not race over country again till June.
She has twice been runner-up to High Forty this winter, beaten a half length the first time and by a long neck at Timaru last month.
She has benefited from Farr’s claim in most of her races but had no claim when battling solidly for fourth, behind High Forty, in last weekend’s Koral Steeplechase.
‘‘She’s never been out of the top four and has improved every single time,’’ Farr said.
‘‘She’s shown she deserves to be in this company.
‘‘She’s not very big and she’s very quirky but I get on well with her.
‘‘She ran home so well on Saturday [in the Koral] and I’m really hopeful. But she would like a bit of cut in the ground. A bit of rain would really suit her.’’
Faites Vos Jeux is trained and part-owned by Timaru dentist David Hutton, who does the horses in the morning before spending the rest of the day at his dental practice.
‘‘She’s very well and seems to be a lot stronger [this year],’’ Hutton said.
‘‘She likes the bigger fences and the extra distance [in the National] should be OK. She’s by Yamanin Vital and from the family of [Melbourne Cup winner] Baghdad Note.
‘‘She’s been late-maturing and never travelled well earlier. She used to shake and shiver and arrive [at the races] in a lather of sweat. But she’s got all over that.’’