Fitzgerald ready for city chance after return from frightening setback

If not for a burst appendix, gun apprentice Mollie Fitzgerald would have likely used up her provincial claim and be riding regularly in town about now.

Patience, though, is a virtue, and an attribute the 23-year-old is showing in spades.

Apprentice jockey Mollie Fitzgerald.Credit: Getty Images

She hopes it will pay off when she heads to Randwick on Saturday for three rides in what will likely be a taste of things to come. She rides Couples Retreat and Shelstein for bosses Annabel and Rob Archibald, and Cougars for Barbara Joseph and Paul and Matt Jones in the Highway Handicap.

“There’s no provincial meeting on the Saturday, so there’s a nice opportunity to get a couple of rides in town and just dip my toes in there,” Fitzgerald said.

“I’ve only had a handful of rides on a Saturday and I think my first boss, Tony [Ball], took a handful there when I was very fresh in my apprenticeship, so that was a bit daunting, but I’m looking forward to being there on Saturday, and it would be lovely to get a winner or two.

“I’ve still got a few wins left in the provincials before I start going to town full-time, so just looking to making use of the claim.”

With the backing of the powerhouse Archibald stable over the past 13 months and the guidance of her father, former jockey Malcolm, Fitzgerald has been taken through the grades carefully, maximising her weight claim in country and provincial racing through 174 career wins over almost two and a half seasons. She has ridden at metropolitan level 13 times for one win, at Canterbury earlier this season.

Based at Warwick Farm, the exciting prospect had hoped to be competing in town regularly but a ruptured appendix in March put her out of race riding for two months. The “scary” setback came when she was in contention for the overall NSW premiership. Fitzgerald still finished with 88 winners at a strike rate of 15.2 per cent last season, and the provincial apprentices’ title with 34.

“It’s been a little bit of an awkward time,” she said.

“I had to have a bit of time off due to illness, so that popped our timeline out of whack. I had been crook for a while, but I was just persevering through it, but it actually ruptured.”

Many expected Fitzgerald to contest the Sydney apprentices’ title from the early part of this season, but her team have stayed patient after the setback.

“We’re just more focused on doing the right thing by my claim and then taking my time, and that’s given me time to get more experience, and look better and stronger on them as well,” she said.

“I’m really looking forward to [riding in town], but I also want to make sure I’m ready because obviously you can get to town too soon.

“Annabel, Rob and I are all on the same page with progressing with my claim, and I think it’s there for a reason. We’re doing it a little bit old school, but it’s worked with a lot of good apprentices.”

Fitzgerald has wanted to be a jockey since age 11, when helping her father in his work developing a Racing NSW rehoming property near Taree.

“I always loved horses and I was very lucky to grow up with them,” she said.

“I went to the beach with Dad one morning to do a bit of pace work and I just fell in love with it. That’s when I made up my mind I wanted to be a jockey.

“As soon as I was old enough to get into the stables, I was in there the next day.”

Fitzgerald grew up riding in Pony Club events with Chris Waller’s newest apprentice Siena Grima, and like her, she wants to carve out a place in the elite Sydney jockeys’ room.

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“I just take it day by day because obviously the racing game can be challenging, but it’s also got awesome ups to it as well,” she said.

“But it’s just about constantly improving, that’s what I’m focused on, because I’ve got beautiful opportunities around me.”

On Saturday, her opportunities include Couples Retreat ($7 TAB) in the seventh. She rode Couples Retreat to back-to-back wins at Kembla before she had three thirds in city company under Zac Lloyd.

“She’s a beautiful mare, I really like her and it will be lovely to accompany her in town,” she said.

“She’s going well and I think the claim will help as well.”

Shelstein is $9 in the ninth. He was sixth, less than two lengths away, when first-up at Canterbury.

“It was a good run last start and I think the 1200 will suit as well,” she said.

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