Apprentice Award Winners
5 September, 2017
Industry
I
INDUSTRY
Aaron Mitchell and Fred Kersley were major winners at Racing and Wagering Western Australia’s (RWWA) Apprentice Jockey Awards held at Mandoon Estate at Caversham on Monday.
Mitchell, acknowledged by an audience of industry, government and media representatives, won Leading Metropolitan Apprentice Jockey and Best All Round Apprentice.
Mitchell rode 34 metropolitan winners including the Listed Supremacy Stakes (1000m) on Seannie and the West Australian Cup with Zarantz for host trainer, Simon Miller.
Kersley, the grandson of famed trainer, Fred Kersley, claimed Leading Outer Provincial Apprentice Jockey and Most Promising Junior Rider.
Four months after being granted his permit to ride, the talented teenager posted his first metropolitan win on his grandfather’s gelding Cappo D’Oro at Ascot in March.
Kersley took out the Leading Outer Provincial Apprentice title with 23 winners after excellent seasons at Esperance, Geraldton and Kalgoorlie.
Last season’s leading apprentice Clint Johnston-Porter and Malaysian-born Randy Tan tied for Leading Regional Apprentice Jockey with 18 wins apiece.
Both riders represented WA in the National Apprentice Challenge with Johnston-Porter scoring a win for the powerful Hayes-Dabernig training partnership.
Tan, indentured to former top jockey, Stephen Miller, capped a fine season when he claimed his first feature win on It’s It in the Listed Beaufine Stakes (1000m).
Maddison Brown’s successful transition to thoroughbred racing continued when she was awarded Trainee of the Year, for her attitude, aptitude and application.
Brown launched her riding career at Pinjarra in June and posted her first win at the meeting when she rated Pinball Wizard for host trainers, Grant and Alana Williams.
Brown, daughter of leading trainer-reinsman, Colin Brown, drove more than 100 winners in harness racing.
After 11 ½ wins for the season, last year’s Trainee of the Year, Shelby Colgate, was crowned Leading Country Apprentice Jockey.
Colgate’s winning tally included success at Junction, Carnarvon, Mt Magnet, Leonora, Port Hedland and Collie.
She is under the guidance of top Great Southern trainer, Steve Wolfe.