Central Districts jockey Leah Hemi has spent many hours travelling the New Zealand countryside this season, and she’s been rewarded for that commitment with two important milestones ticked off over the weekend.
As she travelled to Wanganui on Saturday, Hemi was sitting on 299 career wins and 48 for the season, and by the end of the meeting, she had achieved both her 300th success and 50th this term, courtesy of Knock Off and Identikit.
There was no time for celebrating, as Hemi was on a flight south a couple of hours later, with a strong book of rides on Sunday at Oamaru. She immediately picked up where she left off, taking out race one with La Evita, and completed a winning treble with The Entertainer and On The Rivet.
Hemi had been quietly confident heading into the weekend’s racing and couldn’t have been happier with what eventuated.
“I quickly drove home from Wanganui, changed a few things and flew from Palmy to Christchurch on Saturday evening,” she said. “I stay with my friend Krystal Williams, she’s a trainer down there, then I drove to Oamaru on Sunday morning.
“I really did like the book of rides I had on both days, especially with La Evita, and she really impressed me. She was a maidener three starts ago, and now she’s gone bang-bang-bang.
“I did expect to get at least two across the two days, but to get five was pretty lucky.”
With a previous-best tally of 34, Hemi had been hoping to exceed that amount this season, but she became especially driven when the two figures became well within reach.
“I didn’t really think about it until I was about 30-20 wins away, and I thought, ‘we’re getting quite close to the 300’,” she said. “Over the last couple of months I have been trying to get there, and then getting 50 in a season as well.
“I was hoping to have my best season this year, so to get to 50 was pretty cool.
“I’ve ridden some really nice horses, I’ve been very lucky.”
Hemi has had an abundance of success on her trips to the South Island, and she identified a couple of southern tracks that have been particularly lucrative.
“I really enjoy riding at Timaru, it would have to be one of my favourite tracks, and Oamaru has been very good to me,” she said. “I’ve only ridden there five or six times, and maybe once I haven’t ridden a winner.
“It is quite exhausting (all of the travelling), but I’m quite lucky to have a lot of connections and I’ve built up a good base for myself.”
Having ridden at Timaru, Riccarton, Wanganui and Oamaru over the past six days, Hemi is looking forward to a quieter week, and the possibility of a holiday in the near future.
“I am looking at the calendar and thinking about when would be a good time to go away, and it just hasn’t worked out yet, but I think a time will pop up quite soon,” she said. “At the moment, I’m happy to keep going as I am, and keep an eye out for when would be suitable.
“This week is going to be quite quiet, and today, all I’m going to do is sit on the couch. But I can probably only sit and do nothing for a day, and I love just getting out and mucking around with the cows and the sheep at home.
“It’s probably one of my favourite pastimes when I’m not racing.”