07/05/13
With all the negative press in the racing industry due to the Singleton/Waterhouse dramas regarding Group 1 flop More Joyous, the Heathcote/Cassidy enquiry yesterday, the Liberal government now advising that they are going to spend $3 million and hold a retrospective running and handling enquiry into aspects of the previous Racing Queensland regime and then The Courier Mail’s former racing editor Bart Sinclair coming out of retirement to pen a special article on that “retrospective running and handling enquiry”, I thought today that readers might appreciate a change of pace.
Some years ago as she sat at an Ipswich race meeting outside the jockeys’ room, my attention was drawn to a blue-eyed female jockey. I didn’t know her, but she looked to me like she’d make an interesting subject for a website story and so the story of Tammy Unwin was subsequently penned and went up during 2007. By chance our paths crossed again only recently – so today I repeat the original story and give an update as to what happened to Tammy since that story went up six years ago.
The original story read:
“Around racing circles, the name Tammy Unwin probably rarely gets a second glance these days, however there was a time when the affable 32-year-old female jockey was a major force in the South East Queensland racing industry. Although she comes from an era when female jockeys were not afforded much more than a snigger by the vast majority of trainers and owners, Tammy can now look back with pride at providing an inspiration for today’s successful female jockeys.
Tammy entered the world at Barcaldine in western Queensland, as one of four children to her parents Warren and Valerie. She has plenty of racing blood galloping through her veins, so her entry into the racing industry was not unexpected. Her grandfather on her mother’s side was an accomplished amateur jockey, her uncle from a bygone era was successful Brisbane jockey Freddie Unwin, and her second cousin is former top Rockhampton jockey Mark Unwin.
Tammy who says she has been in the racing industry “17 years on and off, more on than off”, kicked off her career as a 15-year-old teenager with Alan McConachy, mainly riding trackwork for the then respected Caboolture based mentor. Tammy, who spent her entire apprenticeship under McConachy, takes up the story by saying “Alan finished up moving to Mooloola on the Sunshine Coast, so I started riding both trackwork and in races at Caloundra. I won the 1995/1996 apprentice jockeys title, but I had a fall about a month out from the season end and it cost me the fully-fledged premiership as well. I was about three wins ahead when I had my fall and Brad Harding finished up beating me by one win, but I still managed to win the apprentices title by about five wins”.
Tammy who “never did get married” was with her partner from 1997 until recently and that relationship bore “two strong healthy boys”, six-year-old Jackson and three-year-old Charlie. Although separated, the couple jointly and harmoniously share responsibility of raising the youngsters and “take it week about in looking after them”.
Six days a week, Tammy’s day starts at 2.30am when she sets off riding her race bike to Brisbane’s Deagon racecourse. Asked why she rides her race bike for an hour to get to trackwork, Tammy explains, “I do triathlons as well, so riding to the track kills two birds with the one stone, as it helps with my triathlon training. I get on my first horse about 3.30am and finish about 7.30am. When it is my week for the children, I sometimes have to drive the car, instead of ride the bike, to make sure they are at school on time. Asked if she has had any success at triathlon’s Tammy replied with an accompanying hearty smile, “Yes I do mini triathlons and they consist of a 300-metre swim, a 15-kilometre bike ride and a three-kilometre run. I won the Bribie Island one in February of this year. I was also in the big Noosa Triathlon, but it is a team’s event and I did the 1500-metre swim leg and I thought I was going to drown. It is like a washing machine. You get kicked and punched in the face, it’s terrible, then in the back of your head you think there are sharks there. I did the swim leg then had an hour off while another team member did the bike leg, then I also did the 10-kilometre run. I’m doing this year’s Noosa Triathlon again in November and before that I’ll compete in a mini triathlon about October 21″.
When she is not looking after her two sons, riding at trackwork or in races, or competing in a triathlon, Tammy enjoys her role in the Army Reserves. “I’m in signals, in the communications division of the Army, and in about 18 months time I’d love to get a deployment for about 6 months overseas in the Solomon Island’s or Iraq”, said the 53-kilo mother whose blue eyes could melt a glacier.
Asked to name the best horses she had ridden in her career-to-date, Tammy named three horses originally trained out of the Col Williamson yard as being special to her. “I rated Kingston Stage very highly. He won 14 races and I won four races on him – three at Caloundra and one at Eagle Farm. He was a good kind horse for apprentices to ride and learn on. I also had a lot of time for two other horses of Col’s – Simply Ruth and Maleny Miss,” Tammy said. She obviously struck up a great affinity with some of the horses she partnered, as she was aboard Simply Ruth in six of her eight lifetime wins and Maleny Miss in four of her five career victories.
So the next time you see the name T. Unwin in a Form Guide, if you weren’t familiar with her name before – you may be now. As stated at the outset, to most the name wouldn’t rate a second glance, but when we delve a bit deeper and spend ten minutes with her, we find out she is a former Caloundra premiership winning apprentice who was unlucky not to win a Caloundra senior jockey’s title as an apprentice. We find a dedicated young women who is a mother of two, a trackwork rider come race day jockey, an accomplished triathlete, and a person who harbours an ambition to represent her country overseas as part of an Aussie peace keeping force. With a CV like that, she’d have to be rated a winner, in the school of hard knocks that is the racing game”.
Well since 2007 Tammy has left the racing industry and has moved from the Army Reserves and since 2011 she’s been in the Army full time. She’s currently in Melbourne “for five-and-a-half months on a promotion course”, adding, “I have four months left to go and I can’t wait to get home to see my two boys”.
Since joining the Army – Tammy’s fondest memories are of her being part of the big Army contingent that helped residents during the 2011 floods that devastated Brisbane and surrounds. Tammy told Justracing, “I got sent to the Brisbane 2011 floods to help with the clean-up, which was an amazing experience and it was both overwhelming and heart warming. The public were very happy to see us out there helping and to show their appreciation they constantly brought us out free food and drinks whilst others more capable got in and helped with the hard labour.”
Tammy hasn’t ruled out making a riding comeback down the track when she returns home to Queensland after her promotional course in Melbourne, stating “I do miss riding immensely and sometimes wish that I could fit that into my busy lifestyle. Perhaps one day I’ll be back”. Getting more free time upon her return to Queensland will probably also enable her to take up triathlons again. On triathlons she said “I won a small trophy a few years ago at Bribie Island and unfortunately life got a little busy so I stopped competing after having a back injury and an ankle operation last year which I have now fully recovered from. I’m currently working hard on my fitness levels to a standard where I can compete again.
So there’s an update for readers on an affable former Caloundra premiership apprentice.
Next week I’ll look back at the career of one of the most respected senior jockeys of his time – a man who was a respected good judge of a horse. He walked into the enclosure at the Gold Coast race meeting last Saturday strapping a high profile southern visitor to the Brisbane Winter Carnival. Most would wonder how he even knew the trainer, but Justracing knows. In fact they go back a long way. He’s not ridden for some years and has put on a bit of weight so unlike Tammy Unwin he’s 100/1 and drifting of ever riding again, but I always rated him a lovely chap to sit down with at a racetrack and have a yarn with.