New Home For Apprentice Academy

The new home of the Racing SA Apprentice Academy is officially open for business following a ribbon cutting ceremony attended by key industry figures including the Minister for Recreation, Sport and Racing Katrine Hildyard MP.

The Apprentice Academy has a long history of producing world-class athletes and the spacious new building in Somerton Park has been designed to lead the way in educating young jockeys.

“I am very proud of this fantastic facility which is as good as anywhere that I’ve seen in the world,” said Racing SA Chief Executive Officer Vaughn Lynch.

“The new home of the Academy is a multi-purpose building designed to allow the South Australian apprentices to reach their full potential.

“We have an incredible record of producing talent who’ve gone on to reach the pinnacle of our great sport and we hope that this facility will help nurture and inspire the next Kerrin McEvoy or Jamie Kah,” he said.

Along with state-of-the-art gym equipment and six mechanical horses, the two-story Academy houses multiple meeting spaces including a classroom, a giant interactive screen for analysing replays, a lounge area plus kitchen and bathroom facilities for the apprentice group.

Newly appointed Apprentice Academy Talent Manager Ruby Mayers says things have changed a lot since she was a young jockey 10 years ago.

“This wasn’t available when I was an apprentice and I think if there were all these resources, not just the gym and the new building but personal trainers, dietitians, nutritionists, psychologists, all these amazing partnerships like we have with UniSA – who knows I could still be riding.”

“It’s an exciting time to be part of the Academy. Racing SA is doing some wonderful things and it’s amazing to see how much they’re investing in our apprentices,” said Ruby.

In recent years Racing SA has also focused on building talent pathways which feed into the Apprentice Academy.

SA Hall of Fame Jockey Clare Lindop runs the Track Work Professional program designed to equip aspiring jockeys. A long-term partnership with the Hong Kong Jockey Club has also resulted in numerous riders launching their career here in South Australia including most recently Ellis Wong and Angus Chung.

“For the amount of race meetings held in South Australia each year compared to other states we are producing some fantastic talent that can more than hold their own on the international stage,” said Racing SA Jockey Coach Dean Pettit.

“Apprentices have 35% of the market here in SA and have done so for the last two-and-a-half years. It shows that not only are we producing exceptional talent, but that the trainers have faith in our young jockeys.

“This year we inducted five new riders into the Academy which is our largest intake to date. Two SA apprentices finished in the top 10 nationally on winners; Team SA won a record 8th title in the National Apprentice Race Series and our apprentices won 14 Country Cups across the state.

“We are all really proud of these achievements,” said Pettit.