As Southern District’s best jockeys fight it out for the premiership next Tuesday, Rebeka Prest will be making a big move of her own – hundreds of kilometres away from the track.
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Prest will be a notable absentee from the final Southern District meeting of the season with suspension ruling her out the Albury meeting.
As her peers battle it out for the premiership, Prest will be heading up the highway as she embarks on the next phase of her career.
Prest will join the Matthew Smith stable at Warwick Farm on a three-month loan.
After almost five years based in Wagga, Prest will start her last season as an apprentice with a crack at the city.
“It will be a good experience. It will be good to go up there and ride against the better riders,” Prest said.
“Me and Tim (Donnelly) had been talking for a while about going to Sydney sometime before my apprenticeship ends.
“We did think about Queensland but Tim rang Matthew Smith and he was happy to take me, which is good.
“I probably would have liked to go a little bit earlier but last year I had eight months out with injury and then Tim wanted me to finish the season here this year.”
Prest finished her time in the Southern District on a high, with a winning double on Narrandera Cup day on Sunday.
It put her level with Josh Richards for the Southern District apprentice’s premiership and only two off the pace for the overall title.
Prest has developed into one of the region’s leading riders in recent times and has done so without ever having a country claim, due to her background as an amateur rider.
She hopes a three kilogram city claim and two kilogram provincial allowance will help her establish herself at her new base.
“It will be good to utilise my city claim as much as I can,” she said.
“I want to try to get my name up there and utilise my three kilogram claim before my apprenticeship ends.”
Prest’s apprenticeship was set to end on Christmas Day, but she has extended it for an extra nine months due to injury.
She has only ever ridden the one city winner before, in Darwin, and hopes she can land one in Sydney shortly.
Prest has 16 more provincial winners to ride before her claim drops a half kilogram there, so she is looking forward to getting stuck into her new environment.
Her suspension ends in the first week of August so her first weekend riding will be on August 4.
Prest will not be completely lost to the Southern District and will return to ride at Wagga’s next meeting on August 12.
“I’ll come back every now and again, when there isn’t meetings up there,” she said.
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