FEATURE
Doctors at the Royal Melbourne Hospital placed Jamie in an induced coma for five days while family and friends anxiously awaited her recovery. Jamie was left with no recollection of the accident but five months later, she was back in the saddle and it wasn’t long before she was back in the winner’s circle, too. It was the horses themselves, she says, that carried her through the darkest days of her recovery. “After my fall, the horses got me through. I used to just go out there and sit next to my horse all day – it makes you feel safe. It’s so amazing that I get to do this every single day and call it a job.” Before her fall, Jamie was due to ride In Secret in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap. She was replaced by Dean Holland who won the race and paid tribute to Jamie and her courage. Tragically, a month later, Dean himself had a fatal fall at Donald racecourse in Victoria. In 2024, Jamie returned to win that Group 1 race on Cylinder and honoured Dean’s memory. “This is for Dean Holland. I couldn’t imagine anyone riding that horse as well as he did last year and hopefully, he is watching down on us today. He was just an amazing person and it just makes me appreciate being here,” she said. She speaks similarly of close friend Col McKenna, who passed away before seeing Jamie reach the heights of her career. She carried his badge on her vest during the Lexus Melbourne Cup. “I absolutely believe there are a few people out there looking after me, and Col’s one of them. Gaps have come for me on the track that probably shouldn’t have – I think he’s got something to do with that.” The Caulfield Cup win, she says, was the moment the nerves truly settled. “After he won that, I just felt like, OK, I’ve ticked off a major. The pressure sort of lifted off my shoulders.” By Melbourne Cup morning, she was remarkably calm – motivated, in part, by those who doubted Half Yours’s ability to stay the trip. “I like when people – and experts and scientists – doubt you,
because you go, alright, sweet, I’m going to prove them wrong. I was in a very good state of mind that day.” Husband, Ben, was one of her Lexus Melbourne Cup competitors, finishing 14th on Smokin’ Romans, and they also made history as the first married couple to compete against each other in the big race. The two had planned out their rides together that morning and for once, the plan played out almost perfectly. “Races don’t normally go how you expect them to be run, and that race was just absolutely perfect – exactly how we’d spoken about it.” There was even a funny moment mid- race, when Jamie drew alongside Ben and, without quite realising it, said to him: “It’s OK honey, it’s just me.” She laughs at the recollection. “Normally I’m screaming and yelling at him, so I must have been feeling nice at that time.” As well as Ben and her family, the first Australian woman to win the Melbourne Cup, Michelle Payne, was quick to congratulate Jamie on her success. Michelle romped home on Prince Of Penzance in 2015, paving the way for talented female jockeys like Jamie. "I've got tears in my eyes," Payne said on Nine after the race. "She has revolutionised racing and she is so beautiful to watch." By the end of May 2026, Jamie had 1,377 wins, including 20 Group 1 wins, and had earned over AU$114 million in prizemoney. Her passion for riding and for horses shows no signs of ebbing away and when Jamie isn’t on the track, she’s an advocate for giving retired racehorses a second lease of life. She has taken a series of former racehorses and trained them to be showjumpers, including Dollar for Dollar whom Jamie rode throughout the thoroughbred’s career. She put her hand up to buy him when
“I ’ ve got tears in my eyes,” Payne said on Nine after the race. “She has revolutionised racing and she is so beautiful to watch.”
his track career came to an end. “I genuinely love horses and am
excited to showcase the athleticism that thoroughbreds are capable of,” she said. As esteemed female jockeys, like Linda Meech, Pam O’Neill, Michelle Payne and
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