Racheal Kneller - Best Turned Out

As Shirley Teasdale referred to her in my previous interview, 'Racheal Kneller is definitely the best turned out'. She has also been kind enough to talk to me about her career and answer some questions.

Racheal grew up in Wolverhampton and like Shirley has been in the game for a while now. She has also been very successful for a young jockey beginning to find her feet, as rides in the early part of her career were hard to come by. She has ridden out her 7 pound claim already since becoming an Apprentice in 2011 and is still winning as a 5 pound claimer. Despite only taking out her apprentice licence in 2011 she has been riding since 2007 but with a lot less rides, as you can imagine. Although not quite getting through to ride in the top ranks races yet, she has consistently shown her worth, Both on Turf and the All Weather.

Many jockeys riding nowadays will have grown up around horses with the small exception, Kneller is not part of that exception. She claims to have grown up 'virtually sitting on horses' but fully came into the game quite late for a jockey. As a young girl she was always around horses, especially show jumping which led her to compete in many horse of the year show qualifiers. Racing was always her passion though and Racheal's dreams were fairly clear as to what she wanted to do.

She took full advantage of A-level study leave, not for studying though, instead she got a job at Reg Hollinshead's yard as a stable girl. She did pretty much everything behind the scenes at the yard from mucking out to leading up a horse at the races. She then took her amateur licence out for the yard and rode as an amateur for 4 years riding 15 winners during that time.

Her first ride for Reg Hollinshead came aboard the at the time 10 year old gelding Super Dominion at 66/1 round Wolverhampton, in what was to be his last appearance on a racecourse. The second most unfancied runner in the field of 11 was prominent until losing his position at the half way marker. Despite that Racheal managed to get her mount to stay on again late on in the day and grab a staying on 5th, but never looked like troubling the leaders. She was 20 years of age when she had her first ride and since then has never looked back from race riding going on to more success.

After her 4 years with Reg Hollinshead, she moved onto her current stable of Mark Usher to take a step forward as an apprentice for the yard. A move which she regrets not doing earlier as she has now ridden 32 winners in the past two years. Already in this calendar year with the flat season just getting up and running, Kneller has ridden 4 winners and is well on the way to breaking her personal record of wins for the year.

Not just a talented jockey, Racheal has taken it upon herself to write a few blogs and promote females in the sport for 'Racing4Girls'. This is a website and twitter page made up by Stephanie King, a representative for BetVictor, to help racing fans familiarise themselves with female jockeys and trainers. It is also a chance for younger bloggers and eager writers to get involved and develop their skills in writing about racing. Just through visiting the site you can be taken from a racing novice to someone who wouldn't be out of place at the racecourse. Kneller joins fellow jockey Kirsty Milczarek and assistant trainer Katie Margarson, all writing articles for the site in their own spare time. You can give the website a visit by going to http://www.bettingbeauty.com/ where you can also read Racheal's blog.

So what is next for Racheal Kneller? It may sound a bit old fashioned and the same for everyone in the business, but a bit of elbow grease will get you far. There is no doubting that she is headed in the right direction for her career and is one of many in the strong surge of female jockeys currently. This headed by Lucy Alexander who just won the Conditional Jockeys title for National Hunt in the past week beating off Brendan Powell. There is no reason Racheal cant be one of the more sought after jockeys in the game in the coming seasons, especially with an invaluable 5 pound claim. But I wish her the best of luck with the coming season and especially to the Mark Usher stable, may the winners flow like the Champagne on a Saturday night... Right Racheal? Ahem.

Id like to end today by saying thank you to the beautiful Racheal Kneller for taking the time to talk to me when I'm sure she has better things to do. You can keep up to date with Racheal on twitter @Rachealkneller alternatively you can follow me on @Lukeyboy1325. Again another jockey with a more suitable twitter name than me! Also you can follow Mark Usher on his personal account, he is one of the most honest trainers out there and regularly posts his thoughts on his runners. You can find him on @MarkUsherRacing and he is well worth following.

Thank you again to Racheal Kneller, I leave you with an interview I recently conducted with her, cue some humorous answers.

Favourite Racecourse? Ascot
Favourite Racehorse of all time? Join Up
Favourite Racehorse running now? Titan Diamond
Funniest guy/girl in the jockey room? Jimmy Quinn cracks me up, you can't help but smile when you see him...love him!
Racing idol? Richard Hughes
Flat or Jumps? Flat all day
Royal Ascot or Cheltenham Festival? Royal Ascot of course
Do you have a party trick you are willing to share? I'm a pretty awesome rapper...K-Dub in the house!
One horse to watch this season? Swiss Cross for Phil McEntee
If you had the chance to ride any horse in all its races next season who would it be and why? The Fugue, I've always been a fan and I think she's getting stronger!
Racing UK or Attheraces? Attheraces
If you weren't a jockey what would you be? Sad, I love the game! Probably a professional champagne taster!
Matt Chapman or Nick Luck? Matt Chapman
Strictly or X Factor? Definitely X-Factor, strictly is a load of trolley dosh!
Ryan Moore or Frankie Dettori? Frankie
Favourite sport other than Horse Racing? Football...I can drink corona and shout at the telly when I want to!
First Car? Renault Clio called Daisy May Moses
Favourite Band? Three6mafia
Favourite Song? Rhianna-Live your life
Would you rather ride a winner at Royal Ascot, the Breeders Cup or the Dubai Carnival? Dubai for the prize money, but Royal Ascot for the home crowd!
Preferred drink on a night out? Pink champagne
Name a fellow jockey to do this next? My best bud Kirsty Milczarek
And finally, as always, who is the longest in the shower? According to Shirley its me... haha I'd probably agree because I'm a clean freak! But Hayley has a back for flooding them!


Hopefully next time we can get Kirsty Milczarek to talk to me which would be amazing as she has been one of my favourite jockeys for some time now. Thank you once again to Racheal and I hope to hear that name a lot more through the coming season.

Thank you for reading!