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 A grandaughter of Lance and Helena Aynsley who stood Royal Ridge & Avocat General at stud, raced Grand National Hurdles winner Vamoose and the good jumper No Retreat, meant horses were part of my life from when I arrived home from the Nelson Maternity Hospital in 1968.
My mother Anne, who competed successfully at rodeo's, point to points and in the show ring, would most definitely have been a jockey had it not been for the strong anti-female jockey feeling at the time.
I was finally given my first pony at the age of 2 - and I never got off it until I got a faster one.
On the recommendation of well known Te Aroha owner John Carter and Kiteroa Stud's Keith O'Callaghan I approached Alan Jones and began an apprenticeship with him in 1984 at the age of 16.
 I was granted an apprentice jockeys licence at the beginning of the 1985 season and had my first ride 10 days later finishing 15th on Young Brag at Ellerslie.
Following a seventh placing a week later in my second ride, Cool Deal provided me with my first career win with a game win by a nose at Waipa over 1150 metres. With a further 2 wins and an unlucky second in my next 3 raceday rides I had well and truly cemented my career - however to keep me level headed it took a further 34 rides to record my 4th victory.
The wonderful little Cool Deal again provided a career first with a win in the $30,000 Noble Heights Stakes at Te Rapa in May 1986 resulting in my first taste of Group racing success.
Having provided my first career and Group wins it seemed appropriate that "Coolie" was also the centre of my first international riding experience. Owned by Texan's Clayton Gray and Dr Rex Thomas, Cool Deal was exported to America in May 1988 (the date of my 20th birthday) so that the owners could see her race and they kindly extended an invitation to me to accompany her.
Whilst in America for the six weeks it took her to acclimatise I recorded 3 second placings from about 20 rides which Clayton Gray had organised for me.
My first taste of Group One success was short lived with an enquiry into the final stages of the 1987 NZ Derby resulting in Accountant being relegated to second behind Satisfy.
A week later on New Year's Day 1988 I finally picked up my first Group One win when Alynda proved too swift for Courier Bay in the Fieldhouse Stud Railway Handicap.
 An invitation to ride over a four day meeting at the Ipoh Turf Club in Malaysia in 1991 provided me with my first two international successes and a yearning for more.
During the winter of 1992 I relocated to Queensland in an effort to break into the Australian riding ranks. Despite winning my first Australian ride on the Kaye Tinsley trained Sports Kingdom by 17 lengths and my next 2 which included a city win aboard Backo I found it difficult to gain recognition and rides.
The Queensland stint was followed by 3 months in Sydney riding mainly for Rob Hoysted and Paul Perry, resulting in 1 city win on Opmetder and many on the provincial tracks. I returned to New Zealand in November 1992.
I teamed up with Success Express mare Ferragamo at the trials as a two year old and thought that she was very smart. Alan Jones decided to campaign her in Queensland so I made a point of making myself available for the ride and struck up a successful association with the mare that included wins in Brisbane, Melbourne, New Zealand and a 5th in the Hong Kong International Bowl.
In November 1996 I achieved my career highlight to date - a Group 1 double within a week, aboard the Jim Campin owned pair of Emerald and Hero in the 1000 & 2000 Guineas at Riccarton.
Soon after the magnificent Guineas double (January 1997), I was approached by Donna Logan to ride a maiden 2yo filly of hers in the Great Northern Foal Stakes - Good Faith - who won the race from the outside barrier and thus began a great association with Donna that resulted in wins in the Sires Produce Stakes (Good Faith) and G2 Armaguard Trophy (Waitaha Rua) amongst the 21 wins we combined for in the 1996-1998 season's. It was also during this period that Friday Flash deputy editor Garry Cossey became my unofficial agent and a lot of the credit for my increased success was due to his hard work and the developing of a successful association with the newly relocated Richard Dee stable.
 A chance meeting with Michael Kent whilst in Melbourne with Ferragamo and Arazi in 1995, paid dividends when he invited me to ride in Singapore in September 1998.
Initially intending to ride for 2 weeks, instant success ensured that with the aid of visitor's riding permits and sponsorship from Francis Nathan (1999), Wilming Yeo (2000) and the Perak Turf Club (2001) my stay lasted for 3 1/2 years.
My major wins included the Coronation Cup on Ballistic, Third Leg of Tiger Beer Triple Challenge on Set The Fashion, Charity Cup on The Big Bopper and the Penang Sprint on Green Dragon. My Singapore/Malaysian stint resulted in a total of 102 wins.
Three months in Macau from March through until May 2002 followed and gave me a valuable insight into the Macau racing scene.
In my final leg as a jockey I was very fortunate to be associated with two very good horses, Egyptian Raine whom gave me my biggest win in Australia, being the Swettenham Stud Stakes G2 in Adelaide and of course my little mate El Duce. Winning the Waikato Cup, the Queen Elizabeth and a very brave run in the Auckland Cup.
I ended my career riding Egyptian Raine at Moonee Valley in March 2003.
In March 2005 I started to get keen to ride again. After talking to a few owners and trainers I used to ride for, I made the decision to get back in the saddle at the races. I had plenty of weight to lose and got back to the races in May. I rode 5 winners in the final couple of months of the 2004/05 season and kicked off the 2005/06 season with a win on Bold Trader on the first day of the season at Avondale and rode 56 winners that season. I once again had a great association with the Donna and Dean Logan team and lucky enough to ride horses such as Jazella, El Perez, Stabinthedark etc. The 2006/07 season started off well and by December I had ridden 20 winners before a couple of injuries put me on the sideline. I thought this was a great time to head overseas and have a look around UK/Europe which had been an ambition for a long time. I rode work at Newmarket in England for Gay Kelleway then Mike Blanchard before heading to France where I was fortunate to ride work for Robert Laplanche at Chantilly and also have a handfull of raceday rides. I then ventured to Hungary to catch up with a friend and rode one of the best horses there, Saldenzar, finishing 3rd the Kinchem Dij. I had a short stint riding work and being a tourist in Switzerland as well
I returned to New Zealand in October 2007 and decided to settle in Christchurch where I could continue riding races and also persue my other interests such as running and cycling.
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