Aiden De Campo and Emily Johnson after her first win. Photo Credit- Photography by Jodie Hallows
With a love of harness racing stemming from such a young age, when Emily Johnson was given the chance to relocate to WA to work for Aiden De Campo, she jumped at the opportunity and hasn’t looked back. On Saturday night at Albany, the 18-year-old reinswoman saluted for the first time at just her fifth start in the sulky and on board her own horse, Cordoring Road who is trained by Aiden De Campo.
Making the move to Capel in December 2020, Johnson made the decision to get her drivers licence after watching her brother Mark Johnson in trials and then in races. Inspired by her brother achieving his goals in racing, Emily started the process of going through the reinsperson school herself.
“When I was offered the job, I found it rather hard to turn down due to so many reason,”
“The main one being that Aiden is a very talented trainer and driver, I would be quite fortunate to learn from him.”
“Also, there is so much racing here and I would get a lot more experience driving than I would in New Zealand,”
“I’ve always been quite competitive and love horses, so it’s a perfect match.”
Emily Johnon saluting the win. Photo Credit- Photography by Jodie Hallows
Purchasing the nine-year-old gelding for $1000 as a school horse in July 2020, Johnson completed her trial drives in December and ran second in her first race on December 20 at the midweek meeting at Gloucester Park. Racing in good form this prep, Cordoring Road started at $7 on Saturday in the standing start and after beginning faultlessly off the front marker, he led all the way to win by 9m in 2:05:6 over the 2247m and brought up his second career win at start 98.
“The win meant quite a lot to me because I’ve gone through trials with him, so I was excited to get him across the line.”
“I thought we would go good, but I didn’t think we would win and then coming down the back I was feeling really good about it.”
Johnson’s love of horses began at a young age with her father’s passion for harness racing seeing the family making a regular appearance at trials and race meetings in New Zealand. Through family friends, the Johnson kids got involved in Kids Karts, the NZ equivalent of Pony Trots and that was just the beginning.
“After my pony trot career, I started to help out Arna Donnelly during school holidays and weekends,”
“When I started driving track work, I just loved driving horses more and more.”
Cordoring Road is likely to return to Albany next Saturday night and hopefully there are still plenty of wins in store for young reinswoman, Emily Johnson.
Ashleigh Paikos