WHAT kind of 17-year-old schoolgirl willingly goes to bed at 6.30pm?
Every night.
Probably the same one who hauls herself out of bed at 3.30am the following morning.
Every morning.
Well, truth be told, not every morning: on Saturdays she sometimes sleeps in until 4am.
Tai Jones lives on a vineyard at Vinifera, goes to school at Mary MacKillop in Swan Hill and spends six days a week working there in the stables of local horse trainer Helen Burns.
And on the seventh day she doesn’t exactly rest – Sundays are reserved for her ‘me time’ when she gets to work with her show ponies in practice for competitions ranging as far as national level.
Tai loves horses.
No surprise there.
For as long as she can remember she has wanted to be a jockey.
Again, not unexpected.
But this is where it all unravels and gets very hinky.
Because Tai is just waiting on the phonecall from Racing Victoria to tell her she can begin her career – as a racing steward.
A what?
What about the horses, and the jockeys, and the trainers?
Turns out the average heights for an Australian jockey is 158cm (give or take a millimetre).
Tai is already 168cm – and counting.
Once you bring the height and weight ratio together simple arithmetic shows it would be a very lean and hungry road ahead for her to maintain racing’s demanding measurements.
“I love the whole racing industry, every bit of it, and not many people fully realise just how much work goes on behind the scenes to get a horse to the starting gate,” Tai says.
“I started working with Helen earlier this year.
“We have known her a long time through show ponies but it was a bit of a shock getting up as early as I do,” she laughs.
“Now everyone at school calls me ‘Grandma’ because I go to bed so early.”
So with her dreams of becoming a jockey fading into the distance with every centimetre she grew, Tai started to explore other opportunities that would keep her connected to the racetrack.
Which is how being a steward popped up.
And not one to waste any time, she was straight onto Racing Victoria to see what the opportunities might be.
“I didn’t know much about it,” Tai says.
“I mean, I had always looked at the steward’s reports after races to see if anything had happened which might have affected one of our horses running, but once I learnt more I really started to study it, at home, at the races and even at school (although she doesn’t want anyone to know that part).
“I also learn it is a very rare opportunity,.
“There are only two cadet stewards right now and they are in their third years.
“After I contacted RV I got to do work experience in Melbourne with the stewards, and after that they recommended I stay in touch.
“I have done a second stint with them as well and have been told I am good to go – for the next vacancy.”
Apart from being an enthusiast, Tai will also be something of a trailblazer.
Racing Victoria has 25 stewards and only three of them are women.
But she doesn’t see that as any kind of hurdle to getting into the industry.
If she is offered a place, it will mean a lot of changes to the teenager’s life – she will not be doing Year 12, she will have to relocate to Melbourne and she will spend at least three years getting a lot of hands-on experience. Stewards, she says, are like the ‘police’ of the racing industry and its integrity and make sure everyone involved is doing their best to keep the industry honest and successful.
“Cadets start in Melbourne, first at midweek metro meetings and then Saturdays, and after that you could be anywhere from Manangatang to Sale and all points in between,” Tai says.
“And just like owners, trainers and jockeys, the dream is to cover the big ones, like the Melbourne Cup.”
Trainer Helen Burns says her connection with Tai goes way back to when she was helping her to build her confidence riding a Shetland pony.
Now Tai is almost her shadow – in the past week she ended up spending four nights at Helen’s home, doing everything from mucking out stables to taking two horses to Horsham because Helen could not get time off to attend the meeting.
“She just doesn’t miss a meeting with me, and she certainly has a future in racing, which she has always wanted anyway,” Helen says.
“Even when she was younger she could tell you where our horses had run and how they went – but her knowledge of all racehorses is impressive.
“When she wanted to actually work in a stable and with a trainer, I was happy to give her the opening.
“The stewards had told her it would be good to get as much experience as possible ‘on the other side of the fence’ so she had a thorough understanding of the whole industry.
“Plus, she is great to travel with in the car, or sit at home with, because she loves having the races on and to talk about them.”
Tai might be loving it and Helen says she’s a great fit for it and has an exciting career ahead, but what about Tai’s mum Jodie?
She’s the one also being hauled out of bed at 3.30am to run her daughter the 30 minutes in to Swan Hill.
“Our alarms both go off at 3.30am and she feeds my show ponies while I get ready for work, then we head in to town and she drops me off and goes to her job – so it all works our well,” Tai says with a smile.
“Then when I am finished at the stables, I get a ride in to school each morning with Helen’s nephew Wentworth, who is in Year 12 at Mary MacKillop, which makes it easy all round.”
While Tai can’t be too sure what will happen to her show pony passion once she starts training in Melbourne, she already has a successful career there to look back on.
Apart from competing at nationals, she had her horse Whistlejacket Firefly (known locally as Fly) named Victorian Hore of the Year in 2017, earning him a happy retirement in the paddock.
But the clock is ticking, and it’s almost time for Tai to head to bed.
She admits juggling school, work and her ponies – let alone a social life – is pretty tiring.
And while she considers herself an above-average student, she does sheepishly concede her school attendance “could be a little better”.
But adds her mother, Helen and her teachers all support her shooting for the stars and going for her dream.
