Top jockey Sam Collett finally got the one she was waiting for, guiding the appropriately-named Glory Days to victory in the Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup at Ellerslie on Saturday.

 

The 29-year-old is firmly established among New Zealand’s leading riders, winning 693 races since beginning her career in the 2006-07 season.

 

A career-best haul of 132 winners last season put her at the top of the national jockeys’ premiership and earned her the title of champion jockey. In addition to her undeniable riding talent, she was applauded for her relentless work ethic and willingness to travel the length and breadth of the country for rides.

 

But while her mounts had amassed more than $11 million in prize-money and she had won 29 stakes races, New Zealand’s 21 elite Group One races had proved elusive.

 

Collett had finished second or third in no fewer than six of them, including a photo-finish defeat on Packing Eagle in last year’s BCD Group Sprint at Te Rapa, but the big win remained the one thing missing on her CV.

 

Glory Days was the horse that changed all that. The pair teamed up for the first time three weeks earlier and scored an impressive come-from-behind win in the major Auckland Cup lead-up, the Gr. 2 Coca-Cola Avondale Cup.

 

It was more of the same in the $500,000 Auckland Cup, the horse-jockey combination keeping their perfect record intact in dazzling style. After sitting at the back of the field through the early part of the race, they swooped around the outside of the field approaching the home turn.

 

Glory Days showed her star quality down the straight, racing two lengths clear of perennial big-race performer Five To Midnight as Collett rose in the saddle in a celebratory salute.

 

Collett has followed in the footsteps of her parents, Group One-winning jockeys Jim Collett and Trudy Thornton.

 

“I’ve been trying to keep up with Mum and Dad so to get this is great, because I know they quinellaed the race in 1991,” she said, referring to the one-two finish by Star Harvest (Jim Collett) and Shugar (Trudy Thornton).

 

“I was here as a kid then, so that was pretty cool, not that I remember much.

 

“I’m just so rapt and especially for Bill (Thurlow, Glory Days’ trainer) as he deserved this. I’m rapt that he entrusted me with the ride. She is as tough as they come.

 

“Full credit to her (Glory Days). The whole race I was back, and I was mindful of putting myself there on the corner and she just put me there. She really did it herself. It’s unreal.”

 

Collett sits in fourth place in this season’s premiership, winning 72 races from 633 rides to date.