Jenny Duggan and Samantha Clenton have created history at Rosehill, the pair becoming the first mothers to win Saturday metropolitan races on the same program in Sydney.
Both are mature-age apprentices whose careers have been interrupted firstly by injury, then by parenthood.
Duggan won on the Jason Coyle-trained River Bird on Saturday while Clenton was successful on Nicci’s Gold for trainer Gary Portelli.
Duggan and husband Ben already had eldest child Maddi when she was riding at her peak and after suffering a serious leg injury in 2014, she has added two sons to her brood.
She returned to riding last year and recently claimed the Rising Star series for NSW apprentices.
Clenton suffered crushed vertebrae in a fall at Scone in October 2016 and was told she was lucky to be walking.
As she was recovering she and her partner Tim welcomed Isaac.
Clenton is indentured to Kris Lees at Newcastle and gets up at 2.30am to travel from Muswellbrook for trackwork.
Duggan had to be patient to get River Bird home after being caught in some traffic.
“Jason had her cherry ripe but I needed the splits to come and she toughed it out,” Duggan said.
“It’s not bad riding a Saturday winner in town.”
Clenton said Nicci’s Gold had taken natural improvement from her first-up fifth two weeks ago.
“She probably got further back than I wanted but it all worked out in the end,” she said.
