Riding superstar Sam Spartt was born in Lower Hutt, Wellington, on January 2 1985, to Ken and Jenny Spratt.

Ken, a Marine Engineer, and Jenny, a riding instructor and now child minder. Sam is the youngest of three children. Older brother Neil living in England is an accomplished horseman, having competed at the Badminton Horse trials finishing 25th in 2005, and on the fringe of representing NZ Equestrian team at the Olympics. Sam’s sister Amy 28 is also in England and working as an Environment Impact Assessor (when Sam finds out what that is we will let you know), who may be returning to New Zeaand in the near future.

Sam attended Raphael House Rudolph Steiner School in Wellington before her move to Michael Park School Ellerslie also a Rudolph Steiner school, and only a stones throw from Ellerslie Racecourse.
The whole family were involved with horses and Sam was climbing aboard horses by the age of two. Soon after she was to get her first horse, Snowball, and joined Pony Club. She achieved her A certificates at Pony Club and in 1997 was part of the winning Franklin/Thames Valley Pony Club. Sam also came 3rd in the individual competition.
 Sam was introduced to track riding at age 15 when she was attending the track with her brother who was earning some extra money doing track work while at University. Leading trainer Colin Jillings spied the youngster and offered her work, and so the racing journey began.

In June 2001 Sam (16) was engaged to ride the Kim Clotworthy trained mare Tunzi. In her 1st race day start she had her first winner. Tunzi and Spratt ran out an easy 2 ½ length winners.
At Trentham January 2003 the racing journey came to a sudden and terrifying halt. Sam’s mount, Dragon Tiger, jumped the running rail soon after the start and catapulted Spratt into the air, landing heavily on her head. Sam was to be unconscious for several days. Sam was not in hospital for long but was required to attend a Rehab centre for head injuries 3 or 4 times a week. These sessions required doing memory tests. At home Sam needed someone with her constantly just in case she went “walkabout”. Sam was not allowed to even get on a horse for 3 or 4 months. When she did she had no fear but it took a while to get the “feel for a horse”.
In September 2003 Sam started race day riding again; however, Sam was to retire in later that year.
 

The next few years were to be very busy personally for Sam. In this time Sam was married briefly to jockey Oppie Bosson and also gave birth to Cody James Bosson. Cody’s arrival shows Sam’s courage and determination.
“I had to drive myself to the hospital. I was out fishing off Tauranga coast that day. I had been feeling unwell all day and had thrown up a few times. The fishing got better too each time I spewed. When I got back on shore on the way home I thought I’d better get checked out. The nurse at Matamata hospital checked me and said you are so many centimetres dilated. I said does that mean I can go home? She said no you are going to have a baby shortly and 2-3 hours later Cody was born”

In March 2006 Sam resumed her apprenticeship with Richard Yuill. It was not something that Sam had been planning. As little as 3 or 4 weeks before she resumed Sam had not thought she would be a race jockey again. In her returning season 2006/2007 Sam rode 41 winners. She followed this up with 75 winners in 2007/2008 season finishing 7th in the jockey premiership. Sam was named Counties Racing Apprentice and Jockey of the Year.
This season she has kicked in 71 winners so far including 8 group or listed races, leads the jockey premiership and has won nearly 2.5 million in stakes.