4 November

Busy Busy

Sam’s life is very busy at the moment. With Summer racing coming soon and a lot of Sams regular rides starting new campaigns Sam will be keep on the go. Add to that Sam is also playing Touch once a week in the Waiuku Competition, going to the gym once a week to do Body Jam and also Boxing training once a week on top of race meets and track work.

Sam has taken up Touch again after a long break playing for a mixed team. She rated herself as a youngster at school but is yet to score a try this season although she has come close. Spratt has also taken up boxing training. She enjoys the physical training but has no desire to get into the ring.

Sam heads to Christchurch for the first of the Guineas races this weekend. Sam rates both her chances in both Guineas races. Comme tu Veux has been going well and will be very competitive especially if there are a few showers over the next few weeks. Sam is also excited about Warrentheroosters chances in the 2000 Guineas on Saturday. Perhaps the omen quinella bet for the Guineas would have to be Warrentherooster with Sam aboard and the Lance Revell trained I Am Sam

Sam is also backing The Capital Boys to win the Air New Zealand Cup against Canterbury

A good start to the Labour Weekend

Sam walked away with two winners today at Ellerslie including a comprehensive win aboard the unfancied Run like Al. Run like Al and Spratt won by 4 lengths and was tipped out to supporters club members by Mike Brown paying a healthy $14.50 win dividend. Sam heads to Riccarton tomorrow to team up with Comme Tu Veux and she has 3 other rides aboard El Santo, Mystique and Bossanova.

Sam then finishes the long weekend at Te Rapa on Monday for a busy 9 rides.

8 October

Girls Night Out

Sam heads to Moonee Valley, Victoria tomorrow to take on Australia’s best female jockeys. Race 3 at 9.45pm is sponsored by Pulse Pharmacy and is the highlight of the Girls Night Out where facials and make overs are the theme of the night. Sam has already received a years supply of face cream as part of the sponsors product. Sam is the only New Zealand representative in the jockey challenge other jockeys:

· Casey Bruce, VIC
• Chloe Chatfield, WA
• Libby Hopwood, SA
• Clare Lindop, SA
• Linda Meech, VIC
• Kathy O’Hara, NSW
• Michelle Payne, VIC
• Mandy Radecker, QLD
• Sam Spratt, NZ
• Sally Wynne, VIC
She has drawn the Darren Weir-trained Oak Heart who still holds a Melbourne Cup nomination and the latest quote by the NZ TAB in that race has him at $201-1.
Oak Heart is a five-year-old entire by El Moxie from Life’s A Beach and has won four races.
He has had three starts back this campaign, ran third fresh at Sandown over 1400m then at his next start was unplaced behind Figure Of Speech at Caulfield on August 29, 5.5lengths from the winner. At his last start on September 16 he ran second over 1800m at Sandown.
He has drawn one which will enable Sam to give him every opportunity near the fence.
Sam’s next ride won’t be till Rotorua on Saturday, October 17 as she copped a suspension at Taupo on Wednesday.
29 September

Its raining again..

Weather will have a big part to play at Avondale today. The weather has already caused a few scratchings of Sam’s rides and parts of the track are going to have a significant influence on the latter races. Sam teams up with trainer Peter McKay again with Marcello in Race 2. Spratt has had over half of her 11 winners thus far on McKay trained horses. Spratt had the choice of runners in the Five Star Horse Transport 2 year old race and has opted for Marcello.

Whip rules

“The whip rules are a bit of a mess in Australia” said leading jockey Sam Spratt.” It would be very hard to firstly see where the 100m mark is and also keep the count, May as well do away with the whip altogether” said Spratt.

Sam thinks that New Zealand has got about right at the moment but warned that we usually follow Australias lead.

10 September

All the Nines

The date had all the nines 9/9/09 and Sam’s win at Taupo aboard Forepins (horse number 9) moved Sam to ninth on the Premiership table, four wins behind leader R Hannam.

Sam has a busy couple of days ahead of her. Our champion jockey heads to Te Rapa Friday and has 6 rides before heading north to Ruakaka on Saturday for another 8 rides. Sam teams up with the Richard Yuill 2yo Napali as well as the Levin Classic and The New Zealand Guineas nominated The Heckler.

29 August

Triple Crown

Sam returns to racing today after a 5 day suspension for careless riding at Avondale on the 19th August...

7 August

John McEnroe said it best

“You can not be serious” ...

5 August

Round 2 Ding Ding

The first round went to Kula Me Kool...

For more older stories click here

14 April
By Phillip Quay

Sam Spratt’s fifth Group One win of the season was the least expected of them all.

Her victory on the almost 23 to-one shot Prince Kaapstad in Saturday’s $200,000 Easter Handicap (1600m) at Ellerslie was her longest odds Group 1 win of the 2008/09 season.

Spratt admitted even she had some nagging doubts before the Easter that Richard Yuill-trained Prince Kaapstad could pull off a victory.

“He had raced like a tired horse in his previous couple of starts,” Spratt said. “But in the Easter he found a new lease of life.”

“He has always been a very good horse and was right up there with the best three-year-olds last season. I thought all along he was capable of winning a big race,” Spratt said.

Spratt’s golden season has been full of highlights and the Easter Handicap win showed why she has earned the reputation as being the Queen Of Group One racing in New Zealand.

Her Group 1 successes before the Easter this season had come aboard Gallions Reach (Zabeel Classic), Mufhasa (Telegraph Handicap and Waikato Draught Sprint) and Culminate (Otaki-Maori Weight-For-Age).

She will now be going in search of her first Group 1 success in Australia when she rides Stephen McKee-trained Mufhasa in the A$2 million Doncaster Handicap (1600m) at Randwick racecourse in Sydney this Saturday.

Mufhasa did his Doncaster Handicap chances no harm with a good last-start third in the George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill just over a week ago.

Spratt said Group 1 race wins are what every jockey strives for and she has been rapt with her level of achievement in this area this season.

She has 12 black-type successes to her credit this season and her mounts have earned more than $3 million in stakes in New Zealand alone for the season. She rode three winners at the Ellerslie race-meeting on Monday.

Spratt heads to Te Aroha Wednesday before flying to Sydney on Thursday March

Sam’s suspension is nearly at an end. During this time she has been able to do house renovations and recharge the batteries.

Sam and Mufhasa will be possibly doing an exhibtion gallop at Paeroa on the 25th March.

Thursday 2 April marks the return of Sam back to racing at Pukekohe. Sam has been doing trials and track work and is confident her fitness is good. Following Thursdays race meeting Sam will be flying to Sydney on Friday to join Mufhasa in the George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill.

Samantha Spratt will still ride in Sydney despite a suspension ruling her out of the mount on Culminate in the group one $A600,000 Coolmore Classic at Rosehill on March 21.

New Zealand’s leading jockey was on Wednesday suspended for 3-1/2 weeks on a careless riding charge aboard Vickezzchardonnay in the $1 million Auckland Cup at Ellerslie.

The suspension begins after the final day of the cup meeting at Ellerslie tomorrow and is up to and including March 31.

Spratt is Culminate’s regular rider with a last-start win in the group one $200,000 Otaki Weight-For-Age (1600m) at Otaki on February 20.

Spratt’s suspension means her Sydney debut will be delayed to April 4 when her mounts include Mufhasa in the group one $A500,000 weight-for-age Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill.

12 April

Prince and Princess surprise

By Steve Smith
The fairy tale didn’t have the happy ever after finish in Sydney last week for Spratt and King Mufhasa but yesterday the champion jockey and another royally named horse Prince Kaapstad joined forces to surprise punters.

Spratt and the Richard Yuill trained 4yo gelding Prince Kaapstad overcame a wide barrier to comprehensively win the Land Pride Easter Handicap Opn Hcp 1600 by 1 1/4 length. This was their fourth win together and brings Spratt’s group and listed wins to 12 for this season so far. The win also boosted Spratts stakes winning total to over $3 million for this season.

Spratt’s appearance’s in the winners circle have been scarce in the last month or so having not troubled the winning post since 22 February due to suspension and a bad run of form. Spratt still holds second in the premiership with 80 wins and now trails James McDonald by six.
pratt returns to Sydney on Thursday to again join up with King Mufhasa in the Doncaster. Spratt heads over a day earlier this week as Stephen Mckee is keen for Sam to walk the track

First Taste- One Thumb up.

By Steve Smith

Star New Zealand Jockey Sam Spratt has just returned from her first foray into Thoroughbred Racing in Australia and has given it the thumb up. Only one though. Samantha and King Mufhasa took the lead into the last 100m before being headed and holding onto 3rd place in the George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday. Spratt said she was pleased with the ride and thought she had it won.

“He hasn’t raced for 8 weeks and he just to came to end of his run a bit soon, I don’t think the track helped either” believed Spratt.

Spratt has likened her first Australian experience to that one of big days racing in New Zealand. She said the jockeys pretty much kept to themselves and it was very male dominated. Fortunately Sam knew Kathy O’Hara the only other female jockey racing at Rosehill on Saturday. There was certainly a lot of testosterone around and the Australians weren’t that friendly to the ladies.

Apart from the lack of females it was business as usual on the track at Rosehill. Spratt was comfortable in the surroundings but comment about the amount of people around the track and in the birdcage.

Spratt already has a return trip to Australian in 11 days time to ride King Mufhasa in the Emirates Doncaster. Spratt will be looking to add to her 11 Group or Listed wins and then she will definitely have two thumbs up

Back on the home front, son Cody was well taken care of by Dad and grandmother.

“Yeah it was no worries with Cody, they (Dad and Grandmother) are used to it” laughed Spratt.

Sam heads to Rotorua on Wednesday and has four rides. Join the supporters club to get Mikes Brown, Sam’s racing manager tips on her rides – “Brownie’s Best

 

1 April 2009

The Spratt is Back.

By Steve Smith

Sam returns to racing at Avondale after her 3 week suspension.

“I’m excited to be back” said the enthusiastic Spratt.

Sam kicks of her 7 rides in Race 2 on the promising Richard Yuill trained Come Across.

“I’ve got a lot of rides so hopefully the fitness is good and it’s not too wet”

Sam admits she hasn’t missed too much about racing except when her normal rides win. Sam returns trailing James McDonald by 2 wins in the New Zealand Jockey Premiership and will be looking to make up the difference.

“It’s not too bad to only be 2 wins behind after so long off. It can all change though especially coming into winter with new and different horses beginning campaigns”

Avondale starts off a busy weekend for Spratt. Sam heads to Rosehill, Sydney Friday morning.

 

Princess and the King

by Steve Smith

Its sounds like the beginning of a fairytale, and for Sam Spratt and Stephen McKee they are both hoping they lose a slipper and have to leave in a pumpkin, living happily ever after .The Princess of the New Zealand Racing Industry, jockey Samantha Spratt, is flying to Sydney on Friday to team up with King Mufhasa. Spratt will be aboard Group 1 winner in New Zealand, McKee trained Mufhasa running in Australia under the name King Mufhasa as they take on New Zealand’s and Australia’s top talent in the Group 1 George Ryder Stakes (1500) at Rosehill.

This is the excited Spratt’s first time racing in Australia and she will be looking to make an immediate impression.

“They (Aussies) are probably wondering why the McKees are bringing a kiwi jockey over for one race and a female at that. I’m looking forward to hopefully winning another group1 race and giving it to the Aussies.”

 Spratt is not worried about racing in Australia and does not think she will have to change her style. Spratt does think there will be a lot of speed in the race and some very good horses, but she has a lot of confidence in her mount even though he was rated 14th of 18 after nominations. The weather maybe a factor as lots of rain is falling in parts of Sydney. Mufhasa has 1 of his 11 wins on a slow track with a record of 3-1-1 on slow. Sam will be shown around by the McKee team and racing manager Mike Brown is also flying over to be part of the action.

Sam is not familiar with any Australian jockeys and admits she has only meet Glen Boss while in Japan and Cathy O’Hara when she spent time racing in New Zealand during the EI Virus episode.

 The Champion jockey is not planning to do much while in Australia. She returns home on Sunday to get back to her son especially since number 1 childminder (mum) is unavailable so her Dad and Grandmother take over the responsibility.