The final city meeting for 2015 featured a great, with Katelyn Mallyon outriding her apprentice claim. The grand daughter of the great Mick Mallyon has been very forthcoming about her desire to outride her claim, however time was fast running out, with only 10 days left to achieve her goal.

Her first ride for the day was on the Matthew Ellerton and Simon Zahra trained Miss Cooper, a grand-daughter of the Group 1 winning mare Miss Kournikova (also trained by Matthew Ellerton). Miss Cooper had broken through for her maiden win at Moonee Valley two starts prior to Wednesday.

The two earlier races had been won by swooping horses coming down the middle of the track, which didn’t bode well for the front running style of Miss Cooper. However from an inside gate Miss Cooper took the lead and never surrendered it. It was a well judged ride by Katelyn, who shifted her mount off the rail as they cornered and eased out toward the middle of the track. She was challenged by Maxie’s Blue Girl, but held on strongly to the line.

Mallyon is a two time champion apprentice in Victoria (the first female to do so) and only the second female to outride her claim (alongside Michelle Payne). She’s had to battle injury as a result of a bad fall and illness during her short career. She’s yet to win a black type race, but I’m sure that is next on her agenda and given her talent and drive it will soon come.