SHE married into a racing family and now she’s happily working with her husband as part of a racing outfit where owners are friends and babysitters too.
Billie-Rose Derbyshire came to Gatton in 2015 as an apprentice jockey on loan to trainer Brenton Andrew, son of training legend Sel Andrew, and stayed.
Billie-Rose and Brenton Andrew now have two sons - two and a half years and four months - a nice stable of horses – many of them castoffs from bigger stables - and a bunch of loyal owners.
Typical of their type, Billie-Rose rode Hostage of War to an all-the-way win in the Ipswich Spring Raceday Handicap (1700m) last Friday at Ipswich racetrack.
Hostage of War (1.95) won by two and a quarter lengths from Senrima Tide ($3.70) with Bracken ($5) two lengths further back in third.
“Yeah, it was pretty easy,” Andrew said with a laugh.
“As long as he’s sort of happy and he likes to lead, he’s happiest like that.
“And you’ve got to sort of creep away with him a little bit, instead of hunting him off the spot.
“He sort of likes that. So as long as you can keep him happy, he’s easy you know.
“That was the plan, to lead. He doesn’t have to lead; just as long as someone’s in front going a good clip, that suits him as well, but the lead was there for the taking so I thought: Yeah, he likes that so we’ll lead.”
Walking around the mounting enclosure before Billie-Rose got on him, Hostage of War had a cool strut that she said was typical of him.
“I think he knows he’s pretty handsome,” she said.
“He’s a real favourite around the stables and everyone always fights to ride him because he’s so lovely to ride.
“I call him Harry. Glen Richardson the trainer and Hannah Richardson, who’s a jockey - she’s his missus - they had his half-brother and she called him Barry so I thought I’d call this one Harry.”
Asked how she and Brenton worked together, Billie-Rose’s first instinct was to laugh before thinking more seriously about her answer.
“We work together all right – surprisingly,” she said.
“But I suppose he is my biggest critic.
“He doesn’t miss a trick and, you know, I just want to do him proud. And we work together well, you know, trackwork. He rides too but he’s definitely the trainer and I’m the jockey. That’s his job and I just ride ‘em.
“He’s a very under-rated trainer, Brenton. I’m probably biased because I’m his wife but we’re at Gatton and some people under-rate you a bit, you know.
“It’s hard to get local support at Gatton. A lot of people seem to either send their horses to Toowoomba or Brisbane.
“It’s hard to make a name for yourself. I think Brenton does really well. He’s a pretty smart trainer.
“He gets a lot of tried horses. That horse there is a Chris Waller horse and we bought him off Inglis and he’s done pretty well.”
From Gympie, Billie-Rose Andrew started her apprenticeship with Barry and Desiree Gill, then went to Sunshine Coast for a year with Robert Wilson then back to Gympie with Kerry Munce.
“I rode a lot of bush winners there and had a lot of fun and that was great, then I went on loan to Brenton for my last three months because I had started getting some Toowoomba rides and the drive from Gympie was three hours and that was a bit much,” she said.
“Then I got an extension on my apprenticeship for a year and I rode a couple of mid-week metro winners for him and then after that, I thought: I don’t mind this bloke. I might stick around.”
Brenton’s father Sel has been a trainer for many years and, despite a serious accident where a loading ramp fell on his head, he’s still very involved.
“He comes to the track every day,” Andrew said. “It slowed him down a lot that accident but they thought he’d never walk again. Now he’s just got his walking stick. He’s tough.”
Raising two sons while riding and working together in the stable was, she said, difficult to manage but worth it.
“It’s hard but we make it work,” she said.
“The owners are looking after them here today. We’ve got a lot of lovely owners that do the babysitting and things like that, which really helps.
“I just generally ride ours now, for that reason. And I really enjoy riding ours. I know them and things like that.
“It’s all right with the boys. They come to the track, they come to the stables. They’re going to grow up with it. I kind of hope they don’t become a jockey. I’d rather they become a vet or something like that.”