O’Donnell stands tall at Callaghan Park.

Liv O’Donnell has finished in the money on just about every ride she has had for Rockhampton trainer Kerrod Smyth, who believes the tall hard-working Toowoomba-based apprentice jockey is vastly underrated.

Standing at 172cm, O’Donnell is head and shoulders in height over some of the other girls in the jockey room and if you listen to Smyth, she is in ability as well. O’Donnell has had 18 rides for the Rockhampton trainer this season, winning six times and placing on most of her 12 other rides for the stable.

Since the start of this year, from 10 rides for Smyth’s stable she has scored three wins and two second placings. “I know I keep saying it but she a very talented rider and I don’t know why she doesn’t get more opportunities,” the trainer said.

On Tuesday at Callaghan Park, O’Donnell rides two for Smyth, the former Victorian Cultural Spirit which blemished her win/place strike for Smyth at its only Rockhampton start on Valentines Day, and former New South Wales galloper Big Shooter who has raced twice in Central Queensland without having any luck. The duo are O’Donnell’s only mounts at the meeting.

“I would have loved to have more, but that’s how it turned out and Kerrod has been very loyal to me so I’m happy to travel to ride just for him,” O’Donnel said. O’Donnell said her two Callaghan Park mounts could be big improvers and it may be wise to ignore the form. Cultural Spirit, who only beat two of 12 runners’ home at its Rocky debut, starts in the Maiden Handicap (1400m). “It could pay to forgive him that run,” O’Donnell said, it was the first time for him going the Queensland way, he has a better barrier this time and he will appreciate the extra distance. He is a big horse and needs to get momentum.”

Big Shooter has had two runs in Central Queensland finishing unplaced at both Callaghan Park and Thangool. The five-year-old gelding should have finished much closer at Thangool last week, according to O’Donnell. “They took ages to load them, and my horse stood in the barriers a long time.” O’Donnell said. “He got very relaxed and missed the kick by five lengths. He was only beaten two lengths, so his run was better than it looks.”

Before making his way north Big Shooter won a Hawkesbury Maiden Handicap and was in the top four placings on NSW provincial track on five more occasions.
Guided early in her apprenticeship by reigning premier jockey Justin Stanley, 25-year-old O’Donnell decided early on that she wasn’t going to let her height stop her dreams of making it as a jockey.

O’Donnell took advice from Stanley, also a tall rider, when previously based in Rockhampton riding trackwork for Clinton Taylor, before she commenced her apprenticeship. “It is hard being tall,” she said. “But I get a lot of inspiration from Justin, he rides so many winners, I think he has ridden 8 in the last seven days, and he does it week in week out,” she said. “He inspires me to work hard and get in and do it.”

Growing up as a “horse mad” kid in Theodore, O’Donnell spent time at Rockhampton, Brisbane and Scone in her journey towards her first race ride and initially joined Craig Smith’s stable at Roma. She is now apprenticed to Stephen Kirkwood, who has 10 horses in work in Toowoomba. “A small stable is good for me as I can get all of Stephen’s horses done, then freelance myself,” she said. Currently I ride work for lots of trainers including the Currie’s and Nolan’s.”

In the past seven days O’Donnell has packed her riding gear for five race meetings and one trial day. “I’ve ridden in races at Rockhampton, Roma, Toowoomba, Thangool and Kilcoy and ridden at the Gatton trials, so I’ve been busy,” she said.

O’Donnell’s day away from race riding is also full on. She is at the track of a morning at 2.50 and doesn’t finish there until 8.30, but like most in this business she is not in a hurry to swap the lifestyle for anything else. “Maybe one day I will go back to Uni to complete my studies, but right now I love what I do,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell was first around horses doing show jumping and dressage. She moved to Rockhampton for boarding school and that’s where she got her first job at the track.
From boarding school to University in CQ she studied nursing and then sports science, before deciding to quit and give racing ago.

“I didn’t really know what degree I wanted to progress, and I was just sick of studying,” she said. “I’ll probably go back to Uni to complete my studies one day, but right now I have no regrets, doing what I’m doing.” Tuesday five race program at Callaghan Park starts at 2.12pm.

RJC CEO, David Aldred.

Photo Credit: Caught in the Act Photography.