SAM OTTLEY _ BURNHAM FOREPERSON AND STABLE DRIVER
Sam Ottley, the first female junior reinswoman to drive 100 winners in NZ and a former junior premiership winner, joined the Overport Lodge stable of Mark Jones last week.
“She is a big asset to the stable with her experience and driving ability,” Mark said,
“It’s important she gets back to the trials/workouts and back freelance driving alot as she is wasted sitting in the stand,” he said.
To this end, she will drive stable runner Louie Finn at Methven on Sunday.
Sam Ottley was NZ’s top junior in 2014 in her final season with junior concessions with 52 wins, 10 ahead of Sailesh Abernethy. She finished her junior career with 122 driving wins.
Sam won her first raceday drive on her 18th birthday behind Nigel Paul, a horse trained at Orari by her mother Denise, in a one-win race at the Kurow meeting at Oamaru on August 3, 2008.
Her junior career blossomed under the guidance of trainers Colin and Julie De Filippi.
During her early career, she partnered former Dominion Handicap winning trotter Stylish Monarch, two low-grade races in 2009.
She also scored an upset win in the 2012 Geraldine Cup behind the Colin and Julie De Filippi-trained mare Just Rose, and partnered that stable’s top trotter Stent, for a race win, and also a second in the Group One 2013 NZ Trotting Championship.
Sam also racked up 41 wins in her first season as a support open driver last term when attached to the Robert Dunn stable.
She has only had 27 drives this term for one win.