Linda Meech is arguably Australia's best female jockey and yesterday she became the first female to reach the impressive milestone of 2000 race wins!

Linda is from Pongaroa, near Woodville on New Zealand’s North Island and learnt to ride through the Training For You equine course in Whanganui under the mentorship of local legend Janice Webster. Linda was not from a racing family but committed to the industry and ended up in Melbourne at the tender age of 18. The apprentice accompanied a small team of horses trained by Kevin (Dummy) Myers to the Ballarat stables of Paddy Payne to chase some lucrative prizemoney in country cups and minor races. 

Linda now splits her life between an apartment in Port Melbourne and her place in Stawell and has now become the first female jock to 2000 victories in Australasia.

While Linda was just learning her trade on the Wanganui training tracks, Lisa Allpress was already a well established rider in the same town and on the national scene. Unfortunately injuries have held Lisa back from reaching the same milestone first. She is currently recovering from injury but will hopefully be back in the saddle soon and is not far away from achieving the feat as the first to reach the 2000 mark in New Zealand.

Congratulations to Linda on this outstanding achievement and career so far that has also broadened into training as well.