“When I was little, I always rode horses and did eventing and show jumping and I always wanted to be a jockey,” Hammond said.
“My size is perfect and it’s something I always wanted to do so I stuck to it since I was a little kid.
“I was always like ‘I want to do that’, I never thought about doing anything else.”
“When I was little no female had won the Melbourne Cup yet, so when I heard that I was like ‘I am going to do that, I am going to win the Melbourne Cup’.
“That’s what caught my eye first, and I decided I wanted to be a jockey and stuck to it.”
Hammond has taken the next step to reaching that goal after commencing her apprenticeship this week.
It will take Hammond around four years to complete her apprenticeship. During that time, she’ll be working six days a week — not including races — often having to get up at five in the morning and spending hours each day riding.
Hammond is attached to Echuca-based horse trainer Gwenda Johnstone through her apprenticeship, with a partnership between Johnstone’s stable and Racing Victoria.
Starting an apprenticeship was a big call to make, but one that Hammond is happy with.
“It is a big decision, it’s a lot of commitment to do it,” she said. “I’ve just worked so hard for it that I couldn’t imagine giving it up now.
“I just worked at it and I’m very grateful that I got in and I am going to make the most of it. The more you put in is what you’re going to get out of it.”
Hammond had been working with Johnstone Racing for three years, before going through the process of starting an apprenticeship with Racing Victoria.
Physical fitness is a key element of being a jockey, with a focus on strength and aerobic conditioning, and Hammond will face multiple fitness tests throughout her apprenticeship.
Hammond has already faced significant challenges in her quest to become a jockey, suffering serious injuries during an accident in May 2020.
“It was a Saturday morning, everything was going really well,” Hammond said.
“I was on one of the younger horses when another ran past and spooked it and it caused us to both lose balance.”
The duo fell to the ground, with the 550kg horse landing on top of her.
The fall fractured Hammond’s femur in five places, and she was flown to Melbourne for surgery to repair the damage.
To make things worse, as the horse was getting up following the tumble, one of its feet hit Hammond in the face, breaking her nose and giving her a concussion.
“It was very tough, I was devastated,” Hammond said, looking back on the incident.
She was going for her licence at the time but missed out due to her injuries, which meant she was out of action for seven months.
Despite her frightful injuries, Hammond was still taking the positives out of the situation.
“It was tough, but it was motivation to get back up and keep going,” she said.
“There is going to be setbacks in this sport — it’s a very dangerous sport — so it’s just part and parcel with it, it’s going to happen, so I just kept pushing through and luckily got back.”
Hammond said it was important to put the accident behind her, adding that she won’t let it play on her mind going forward.
“You have to shut it out, there is no point in being scared while you’re on the horses,” she said.
“There are not many jockeys that haven’t had injuries or broken bones. You know it’s a possibility, but it’s part of the sport so you just push through it and don’t think about it.”
While her apprenticeship will last around four years, Hammond will likely be riding racehorses sooner than that.
She will need to pass a series of trials before she is allowed to compete, but she said that was likely to take about a year.
Once she can ride competitively, Hammond said she would love to ride in some Group One races.
Hammond won’t be the first woman to win the Melbourne Cup — Michelle Payne achieved that feat when she rode Prince of Penzance to victory in 2015 — but Hammond said she still had her eye on the cup.
“That would be the biggest one I would love to win,” she said.
She said that female jockeys like Payne had been key role models for her.
“Michelle Payne has been one of the biggest inspirations to me,” she said.
“There are so many more female jockeys walking around, and I think Michelle Payne really opened it up for women in racing.”
Another idol is Jamie Kah, one of the top female riders at the moment.
“She is amazing, I look up to her as well,” Hammond said. “Just the way she rides and pushes the horses out and just the skill that she has is incredible.”
“All the female jockeys are killing it at the moment and it’s really great to see.”
Hammond lives in Tongala and her apprenticeship is based out of Echuca. She said she hoped to one day compete in Echuca’s biggest race.
“I would love to race in the Echuca Cup, it would be awesome to run at my home track,” she said.
“It would be great to race and even better to win one.”
