Updated: Kelso jockey Jake Dickson keeping going after passing five-win target
Kelso jockey Jake Dickson is now setting his sights higher after passing his target of chalking up a handful of wins in his debut season and hitting the half-dozen mark on Sunday.
The 18-year-old apprentice’s fifth first-placed finish was on 9-4 joint-favourite Sweet Kiss over a mile and two furlongs at Pontefract in West Yorkshire a week ago Thursday.
That ride was for his employer, Tim Easterby’s yard at Malton in North Yorkshire, and he finished three-quarters of a length ahead of fellow North Yorkshire trainers’ Michael and David Easterby’s Lights Go Down, ridden by Joanna Mason, to land a top prize of £3,402.
That was Dickson’s third race on the three-year-old bay filly and he’s won all three, the others having been at Leicester nine days prior at 3-1 and Doncaster in South Yorkshire in mid-August at 10-1, both also over a mile and two furlongs.
Congratulating the Borderer on hitting his hat-trick on Sweet Kiss, Easterby, 64, posted: “Sweet Kiss has done it again, winning her third race of the season under our apprentice Jake Dickson, who once again gave her a brilliant ride.”
His other victories were on Good Karma over seven furlongs at Thirsk in North Yorkshire in mid-July at 9-1 for Lancashire trainer John Riches and, for boss Easterby, Copper Knight over five furlongs at Pontefract in June at 5-2 and Candonomore at Newcastle over seven furlongs on Sunday at 5-1, with that latter win earning a top prize of £11,515.
The teenager, at Katie Scott’s Lindean stables near Selkirk before moving south of the border to Malton in March, was back in his homeland on Monday last week at Hamilton Park in South Lanarkshire, placing second, by a shoulder, in a one-mile race on Obee Jo for Easterby at 14-1.
That race’s top prize of £3,664 went to Second Fiddle, ridden by Mohammed Tabti for trainer Iain Jardine, formerly of Hawick but now based in Dumfries and Galloway, and its field of nine included two other Borders jockeys, Shay Farmer and Rhys Elliott, respectively fifth on Madame Plaintiff for North Yorkshire trainer Alan Brown and seventh riding On the Bubble for Camptown’s Gary Rutherford.
That was Dickson’s first second place to accompany his six firsts and seven thirds in 47 rides so far this flat season.
He was back at Hamilton this Monday, placing fifth on Hot Team for Merseyside trainer Patrick Morris, and at Ayr on Tuesday, finishing fourth on Yermanthere for Easterby.
Hawick’s Farmer was also among the winners at Pontefract a week ago on Thursday, on Captain Potter at 10-11 for Malton’s Brian Ellison over two miles and a furlong, his 12th first place of the season, followed by another a week later at Newcastle on Fletchers Dream for Alan Brown’s North Yorkshire yard.
Another Hawick jockey, Archie Young, won the next race at Newcastle on Sunday after Dickson’s victory, on Novak at 11-1 for Jardine, also over seven furlongs and for prize money of £11,515.
Young, 19, went on to notch up another win, his 18th of the season, for Jardine at Ayr on Tuesday on JKR Cobbler at 7-2 over seven furlongs, earning £3,664.