Apprentice Emma Lines salutes on Tubthumper in Darwin Guineas
Emma Lines made it back to back wins for NT apprentices at the top level with victory on the Phil Cole-trained Tubthumper in the $75,000 Darwin Guineas (1600m) at Fannie Bay on Saturday.
Fellow Darwin apprentice Jade Hampson won the $110,000 Alice Springs Cup (2000m) on Dick Leech’s Write Your Name in April.
Lines, 17, only started riding in December when she was victorious in her first race, but she grabbed all the headlines on Day 1 of the Darwin Cup Carnival.
The teenager was the first apprentice to win the Guineas since 2002 when Joel Hallam won aboard Viv Oldfield’s Grey Desert.
Jumping from gate five, Tubthumper ($10) got to the fence and led for most of the race – she relinquished the lead briefly along the back straight – before fighting off Dick Leech’s $2.80 betting site favourite Century Fox (Paul Shiers) in a titanic battle in the home straight.
Shiers was aiming for his 10th Guineas win after finishing second last year on Rising Fire behind Wolfburn.
Century Fox won the NT Guineas (1600m) in Alice Springs in April, but missed out by a short half head on Saturday when he looked like passing Tubthumper with 250m to go.
Tubthumper will guarantee connections an additional $50,000 in the inaugural Darwin Double should the three-year-old filly win the $135,000 NT Derby (2050m) on July 22.
Formerly trained by Annabel Neesham in NSW, the daughter of Zoustar had five starts and managed a second at the Gold Coast and Ipswich late last year.
Winning a 1200m maiden on her Darwin debut for Cole on June 3, Tubthumper saluted three weeks later over 1600m (0-58) before the Guineas.
Lines, who has been sidelined with ankle and knee injuries, as well as heat exhaustion, during her brief career – and who finished second in a heat of the National Apprentice Race Series in March when her mount’s saddle slipped at the 600m, was on “cloud nine” on Saturday night.
“Yeah, absolutely amazing, I can’t believe it happened,” she said.
“I was very nervous coming into the race.
“I was border line tears after the race, everyone else around me was border line tears.
“I was shaking, I was just so overwhelmed and happy that it happened and I’m just in awe.
“Phil’s so happy, he’s just over the moon.”
Naturally, Cole and Lines, who picked up the ride with regular rider Wayne Davis suspended, devised a plan for Tubthumper.
“I was watching all the replays over the last week religiously of all the horses in the race,” she said.
“I was trying to figure out my best plan of attack, Phil and I had a chat about it.
“I said that I was pretty confident that my inside horses weren’t as quick as Tubthumper out of the gates and I think it’s better off if I take the lead, and set the pace.
“The filly is placid, she’s a very easy ride.
“She doesn’t care too much about the pressure from the outside, so I was happy to take the lead.
“I put the heat on from the 800m, but I didn’t start getting into her until we straightened up.
“I wanted to get her going because I knew that there were a lot of backmarkers that could run me down – so I wanted to get the tempo up then.
“When Century Fox came cruising up next to me we went head to head all the way down the straight, it was thrilling.
“Mr Shiers and I spoke after the race – he said ‘I could just never get my horse’s nose in front of yours’ and I think he was correct.
“I just held on the whole way down the straight, I did know that I had won and I was very excited.”
Lines did feel for Davis, Cole’s No.1 rider, who might well ride Tubthumper in the Derby.
“Wayne would have ridden Tubthumper today,” she said.
“I was the fortunate one out of an unfortunate circumstance, but I was so happy to ride her and fortunate that Phil put me on.
“It was my first big feature race as a first year apprentice, and I could never have asked for a better outcome.
“It’s just such an unbelievable turn of events lately.
“Fingers crossed I’ll get the ride in the Derby, but that’s definitely up for discussion in coming weeks.”
Lines, who now sits third in the Top End and Country jockey’s premiership with 17 wins, had every reason to celebrate after her ups and downs.
“That’s the whole experience with job that I’m in – you have very high ups and unfortunately very low downs,” she said.
“I’m just behind the two leading jockeys Jarrod (Todd) and Sonja (Wiseman), that’s also amazing.
“Unfortunately, I won’t catch them this season, but I’m the leading apprentice which is awesome.”
To cap off a big day, Lines’ parents David and Rosa returned from a seven-week holiday on Friday night and were trackside on Saturday.
“They came to the races today and they said that they must have known something was going to happen,” the young hoop said.