And the wins keep on coming!
There was a mini milestone of sorts in a year of plenty for jockey Lucy Fiore at Kalgoorlie on Sunday.
She was forced to wait until the last race on the card, but got the job done on Feuding, capping another top week in the saddle.
It followed hot on the heels of her efforts at Bunbury 24-hours earlier when she bagged four winners and came close to knocking out a fifth.
Desert Whisper got the ball rolling ahead of Famous Dain, En Plein Air and Chollima before she came home with a wet sail aboard Keep Ita Mystery but ultimately fell a nose short.
Another riding week done and dusted, another bag of winners for Fiore.
Her regularity in knocking out winners this season is almost Pike-Esque.
Feuding’s win took Fiore’s 2024-25 season tally to 123 ½ winners, leapfrogging injured contemporary, Chris Parnham, who is stranded on 123 wins in the Australian premiership.
Only two other riders have booted home more winners to date this season: Melbourne’s Blake Shinn, anchored on 150 wins and local gun Pike, 140 ½.
Shinn, currently sidelined and out of action after suffering a foot injury, faces a battle to get back before the season draws to a close.
Fiore and Pike are two of six Western Australian hoops that occupy top ten positions in Australia’s jockey title.
Clint Johnston-Porter has ridden 122 winners, Natasha Faithfull 113 and Brad Parnham 108.
Fiore is currently in the midst of a career renaissance, a decade after she emerged as one of the hottest apprentice riders to enter the world of racing.
She made a stunning start to her life as a jockey, when 17-months after her debut she outrode her claim faster than any other junior rider in WA.
It started at Albany in 2014, a first winner at Bunbury a week later and it went on from there, capturing 102 winners in her first season in the saddle.
Fiore has well and truly bested her best season, an ambition she targeted after winning the Listed Sheila Gwynne Classic (1400m) aboard Generosity in March.
The mare, trained by Simon Miller, took Fiore to Adelaide for the Group 1 Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville where she ran fifth to Reserve Bank.
Fiore and Miller can look forward to further highlights as a combination later in the year-at home or interstate-with gun gelding West Star.
The richly talented son of Playing God gave Fiore her last feature victory and ninth Group 3 triumph when taking out the Northam Stakes (1300m).
Fiore said her past 12-months in the saddle has been more than a touch satisfying and rewarding.
The gun jockey is riding the crest of a wave and enjoying her time under racing’s spotlight.
“I cannot complain, it’s been going absolutely super,” Fiore said on Tabradio.
“The whole season I’ve been getting a lot of support.
“A lot of nice horses for a lot of nice trainers.
“It’s been a very enjoyable season.”
Fiore can focus on a second Strickland Stakes victory at Pinjarra on Saturday when she teams up with one of her favourites, Admiration Express.
The mare may have even shot to number one in Fiore’s pecking order after they combined for a cracking second in last year’s Group 1 Northerly Stakes (1800m).
The pair were steaming home late and looked to be in with a real chance in the straight when trying to reel in eventual winner, Light Infantry Man.
A target race, Admiration Express is third up in the Strickland Stakes after a solid run on fourth behind Western Empire in the Hyperion Stakes.
Fiore thought the run was eye-catching.
“She was a really good run the other day and I thought she was super,” Fiore said.
“The horses that beat her are all three classy horses with a good turn of foot.”
Admiration Express is in the capable hands of Jason Miller, who has a good handle on what it takes to be successful in the winter staying event.
He scored two years in a row with Prince Turbo (2022), the gelding’s final race and Naughty By Nature (2021).
Miller also has a Strickland scalp as a jockey when he booted home Dedicated Miss in 2004.
Likewise, Fiore has her name etched on the Strickland Stakes trophy, riding Material Man for her trainer-father, Justin Warwick in 2018.
Julio Santarelli