Jockey Angle with Paddy Flood: Jessica Stokes - she's a cracking girl. She's as hardy as a snipe! On this week's episode of ‘The Jockey Angle’, brought to you by William Hill, Paddy Flood looks at a classy spot of riding from Jessica Stokes to secure a winner for her family at Limerick. Race replays are FREE to watch from all Irish tracks and a selection of premier British tracks sponsored by William Hill. Paddy Flood’s Analysis We are going to look at a three-mile hurdle, and it's the John Thomas McNamara Qualified Riders' Handicap Hurdle. How much is John Thomas missed? What a horseman. At this time of the year, you see his name on a few races in Limerick, and it really brings back memories of JT in the weighing room, the fun and the craic, and the God-given gift he had of getting horses to jump and run through the line for him. He's always missed. He was a great figure in the racing industry. Here we have Jessica Stokes on Fenway Park. You can see Jessica sitting fifth, in the red and white. Jessica's done a little bit of schooling with me before. I've seen her a few times, but I just wanted to highlight a ride today and hopefully people get a little look at her. She's a cracking girl. She's as hardy as a snipe! This is her first winner on the track, but it really didn't look like it. What I love about Jessica is how she approaches a jump, even when the horse is wrong. She's small. She's neat. She gets right in behind him. The one thing I'm always telling lads to do is get your bum to touch the saddle. Whether they're going short or long, if your bum touches the saddle, you're giving energy into the horse's back end. If you just stay upright like this, you're giving a negative sign, and they tend to jump off their front legs a little bit more. Just watch Jessica. The horse is getting tight to his hurdles there. She's not bringing her body weight back. She's letting the horse roll in. What's happening is that the horse is able to bend the trunk because she gets nice and low and compact with him. She lets him open up and round the shoulders. You'll even see here she's in the middle of these. She makes a little mistake here, but you wouldn't know by her body language because she's so neat and tidy. She's a small girl. Jessica, I think she's ridden a winner in a point-to-point or a couple of winners in point-to-points. What I really loved about this was her positioning. Leave style out the window if you want. She went around that first circuit, and she's done the very same thing. She's settled into the horse and got him popping. Basically, when you do that over a jump, they find jumping very, very easy. What tends to happen is they'll pop away, not lose the hurdle, but they won't be flashy. You want to keep that energy in your horse's legs for the last three hurdles, when the race really develops. Because if you use those big jumps early, that's your energy gone for later on in the contest. What you really want is a horse to be popping away, not shortening the stride or lengthening the stride. Going down to a jump, in an ideal world, you just want to meet it spot on, but you have to do a few things to achieve that. She's sitting into her saddle. She's getting her horse to push off its back end and land running. The horse is happy. She basically said, "No, I'm not getting involved in that speed because I'm riding my horse to rate him and get him home." She starts rating her ride to arrive there at the last. She didn't just go chasing, catch him, and end up in front way too soon. She actually reeled them in five or six lengths at a time. She got one length closer, then another length closer. She's riding this perfectly. She's going to get a lead to the second last. She grabs a hold of him here at this stage. This is a horse they claimed off Andrew McNamara. Her dad claimed him for her to ride, and it's only her second run for her dad. Fenway Park is loving it and responds really well. I think it was a really polished ride for a young girl having her first win on the track. She's definitely a name to follow. If you see her in ladies' races, normal races, or a bumper again, don't be afraid to back her. Well trained, well bought, and extremely well ridden. I wish her the best of luck going forward because she's a really good rider.
