Emma-Jayne Wilson rides Jill, a thoroughbred from Steven Chircop Racing Stables, during early morning exercise at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, on April 20.Mike Campbell/Reuters
Emma-Jayne Wilson has won more than 1,900 races as a jockey over the past 20 years. There is one that stands out above all of the rest.
In 2007, she became the lone female rider to capture the Queen’s Plate, Canada most prestigious horse race and now, at 165 years, the oldest continually run stakes race in North America.
“I remember like yesterday,” says Wilson, 42. “It was a galvanizing moment for me. I have watched that tape a significant number of times in the last few weeks and I may just watch it again on Friday night.”
On Saturday, Wilson will be at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto aboard Jokestar, a 20-to-1 long shot in Saturday’s $1-million King’s Plate, which is historically named after Canada’s reigning sovereign. Thirteen horses are entered in the 1¼-mile test for Canadian-bred three-year-olds.
The morning-line favourites are Canadian 2-year-old champion My Boy Prince (7 to 5) and Essex Serpent (2 to 1).
Mike Fox, the bay colt that Wilson rode to victory in 2007, was also a long shot at 15 to 1. It was sputtering at the top of the stretch before it ran leaders Jiggs Coz and Alezzandro in the last one-eighth of a mile.
“I remember going down the backside and Jiggs Coz went by me and I was having a hard time keeping up,” Wilson says. “I was chasing him and thought that maybe I could be second. At the one-eighth pole I suddenly said, ‘Oh my, I could win this race.’”
She and Mike Fox shot burst through a hole at the last second and history was made.
In 2007, Wilson became the lone female rider to capture the Queen’s Plate.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
“I hit the wire and I was elated,” Wilson says. “It was mostly a feeling of satisfaction and knowing that I had done my job and had gotten everything out of that horse.
“I have wanted to get my second Plate win ever since.”
Jokestar has won just one of eight starts but has finished in the money four times in the past two years. By comparison, Fresh Prince has won six of 10 races thus far and has finished out of the money just once.
Jokestar drew the coveted No. 1 post position, however, which could boost its chances. Fresh Prince will start in the middle of the pack from No. 7.
“I’m very much okay with it,” Wilson says of breaking out of the gate from the far inside. “The No. 1 hole is the shortest trip around the track so we will save some ground.”
Wilson won her first race at 22 years old at Fort Erie Race Track. She was an aspiring jockey and won in her second overall and first at Woodbine.
She was thrilled as she headed toward the winner’s circle, only to hear other jockeys yell and claim she had committed a foul.
“I was sitting on the back of the horse and thought, ‘Oh no, what have I done?’” Wilson says.
She quickly spoke to track officials, who dismissed the claim against her.
Since that day Wilson has won more than 1,900 times. Last month she set a purse-earnings record of US$90,303,322 for all female jockeys, previously held by Hall of Fame rider Julie Krone, and has increased her purse earnings even more since then. Jockeys typically are paid 10 per cent of the horse’s prize money.
“There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to get there but to stop and see what it means in the bigger picture is settling in on me,” Wilson says. “When I started, to be a female jockey was still a bit of novelty. Before I ever rode a race I was told that girls weren’t strong enough to do it. There were preconceived notions about gender. I can say that as a female jockey I have earned everything I have.”
Wilson was born and raised in Brampton, northwest of Toronto, and attended riding camps as a young girl. By the time she was in high school she wanted a profession where she worked with horses.
“When I was asked what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, I always wanted to be a jockey,” she says.
At 19, she was given an opportunity to gallop thoroughbreds at Woodbine for three days.
“I was terrible at it,” she says. “I failed miserably.”
It whet her appetite, however, and she pushed ahead and got another chance.
“I knew what I had to do the next time,” Wilson says. “When I got to gallop them again, I came to the track and was more skilled. My ability was there, and I continued on.”
In 2005 and 2006 she won Sovereign Awards as the leading apprentice rider in North America and earned an Eclipse Award in 2005 as well when she won 175 races as an apprentice to lead all jockeys at Woodbine.
She is now considered among racing’s best riders – woman or man. She weighs 112 pounds but has the strength to control 1,200-pound thoroughbreds that are headstrong if not possibly a wee bit naughty.
She has had numerous injuries, including a lacerated liver in 2010 that caused internal bleeding, threatened her life and had her temporarily placed at the top of an emergency transplant list. She has also suffered a broken left arm, broken collarbone and hand at the same time, concussions and too many minor fractures to mention.
When it comes down to it, she is one of the world’s best at what she does and still has the same love for it that she had as a teenager.
“There are a lot of little things to this,” Wilson says. “Your job is to turn horses into professional athletes. It’s not like racing a car where you push down the pedal and just go. These are living creatures that have a mind of their own.
“Horses and the connection between them is what got me into the game and keeps me here. When I think about it, it brings me back to my early days.”