Rachel King describes Wagga Gold Cup win aboard Stampede as career highlight

King justified the faith shown in her from Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott by producing a brilliant front-running ride to take out the $150,000 listed feature with Stampede.

King moved to Australia three years ago and became just the second female, after Kathy O’Hara in 2011, to win the Wagga Gold Cup.

Tommy Berry was glowing in his praise of King’s ride and the apprentice was over the moon to win a feature race.

“It’s great, it’s the biggest win I’ve had and definitely my biggest win for Gai and Adrian,” King beamed.

“It’s really good because they’ve given me that support so it’s good to get a Cup winner for them.”

King hails from Oxford and moved to Australia three years ago after originally coming for a holiday to escape the English winter.

She has been with Waterhouse and Bott for the past 18 months and has not looked back.

“I originally came for just a couple of months for more of a break from the English winter really, just to try and learn a bit,” King said.

“I sort of saw the opportunities here for girls and they’re a lot better than being in Europe at the moment so I thought I may as well come back and give it a go here.

“I’ve been riding for 18 months, I’ve been with Gai and Adrian the whole time and this is my best season so far.”

King was proud to become the second female jockey to win the Wagga Gold Cup.

“It’s great. More and more doors are opening for females and it’s getting more and more popular,” she said.

“You notice now in the apprentice races it’s normally more girls than boys a lot of the time so it’s really good.

“I think Australia is great for that, they’re very supportive of the girls.

“I struggled in Europe, I couldn’t get a go, I tried for years and years and couldn’t have any success at all, not a lot, not nearly as much as here.

“Here they seem a lot more open to it and a lot more supportive.”

King was happy with the way Stampede travelled and was confident he was going to hold his rivals at bay.

“He's a very tough horse...he could hear them and wasn’t going to stop. He had the Gai polish on him.”