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By Ray Hickson

With the whirlwind that followed her first city win out of the way, apprentice Molly Bourke is keen to return to Sydney on Wednesday to continue her association with Zakeriz at Warwick Farm.

The 19-year-old from Tumbarumba has only had a handful of metropolitan rides but can always tell the story about how she put six lengths on James McDonald, on runner-up Pretty Amazing, in scoring that maiden Sydney win two weeks ago.

“It felt a bit too easy, like I didn’t do too much work. It didn’t feel real,’’ she said.

Molly Bourke and Zakeriz after their Canterbury win (Pic: Bradley Photos)

“But it was pretty exciting. The first time I took him to the city everyone was saying he’s an outsider and I was beaten just by a nose, and that was a big thrill, but to come back and win like he did was pretty cool.”

Bourke has only ridden Zakeriz twice, the first time was a month earlier at Canterbury where they were narrowly beaten, but she clearly understands the horse well.

She says while the Ned Whiskey Handicap (1600m) is a tougher ask than in the four horse field from two weeks ago, as he has to carry 5kg more even after the claim, the eight-year-old, $6 with TAB on Tuesday, is so reliable.

“One thing is he’s a tough horse and weight doesn’t usually worry him,’’ she said.

“So we’re not too concerned about that and we’ve drawn barrier one again so we’re quite happy with it.

“He loves to do his own thing and he controls himself pretty well, he’s a sit and steer job if you let him do what he likes to do.”

It’s been around 18 months since Bourke had her first race ride but, even though she doesn’t hail from a racing family as such, she’s grown up riding horses and always wanted to work with them.

She used to do work experience at various stables when she was younger but when trainer George Dimitropoulos moved to Tumbarumba she was given the chance to chase that dream.

“I’m only five foot so all my life I always said I wanted to be a jockey and it just happened,’’ she said.

“I said to my dad I wanted a job where I could ride horses all day.

"As a kid I’d do work experience at different stables and eventually at my home town Tumbarumba a trainer moved there with a few horses and asked if I wanted to be an apprentice.”

Bourke is now based at Wagga with trainer Doug Gorrel and while she’s not able to ride Zakeriz, also trained at Wagga by Chris Hardy, in his work it’s safe to say with the association she’s building she’ll be keeping a close eye out when he appears in the early hours.

All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s Warwick Farm meeting