‘It doesn’t feel right’: Jockey riding through grief for fallen friend

Jockey Mikayla Weir doesn’t feel right about the way racing just continues this week, after the heartbreaking loss of friend Izzy Neale.

The enormous grief and sense of injustice at the death of the popular 22-year-old apprentice after a race fall at Warren on Sunday has rocked the racing community, especially at Scone, where the Merriwa local had worked alongside Weir for trainer Scott Singleton over the past few months. She also worked there early in her career with Rod Northam.

Monday’s meeting at Scone was postponed to Wednesday as Neale lay in a critical condition in Dubbo Hospital. Her family announced on Tuesday night that Neale had passed away and her organs had been donated to help others live.

The grieving process had already started for those close to Neale, who had ridden 88 winners and put down a deposit on her first house just last week.

“I rode work at Scone on Tuesday morning and it was just eerily quiet,” Weir said before Wednesday’s Scone meeting.

“Obviously, everyone is feeling it. It’s terrible.

“I know life has to keep going, but I feel like it just doesn’t stop. We just carry on. I guess that’s with anything like this. I guess people still have to go to work, but it’s just f----- that everything keeps rolling on. It doesn’t feel right.”

Singleton said the other young workers in his stable “feel like if it was one of them, Izzy would want to turn up and carry on and make sure the horses are right”.

Weir said Neale would have been one of the first there.

“The one thing about Izzy, she was always early,” she said.

“She would be at the races early, or at the stables ready to go. She liked her job so much.

“She was very popular. Everyone just loved her. She never got involved with anything that people wouldn’t like, she just stuck to herself, did her job and was just so happy to always be at work.

“There would be times she was so sick, and she would still rock up for trackwork and try to be there. She loved riding.”

Weir rode at Scone on Wednesday, saying: “I can’t let Scott down.” The impact of the loss was clear when local apprentice Jasmine Urquhart-Warren fought back tears after riding Ocean Tsunami, a horse Neale had ridden, to victory for Singleton.

“The girls are very tightly-knit, despite some huge age differences,” Weir said of the riding ranks in the region.

“Jenny Duggan is 10 years older than me and I’m 10 years older than Izzy, and there’s no difference with the friendships. We don’t feel the difference.

“I don’t feel weird hanging out with Jenny, and Izzy and Maddy [Owen] would never feel strange hanging out with Jenny or me either, because we are all so close.

“It’s so weird that we were talking about that the other day ...

“Izzy always called me mum, because I was like the mum of the room. I’m one of the only senior females around the apprentices, so they just have this running joke of me being mum.

“We were friends beforehand through my good friend Maddy Owen, and Izzy was best friends with Maddy.

“She was looking for somewhere to go and then I said for her to go to Scott’s. I just thought it would be a good opportunity to try and ride out in the provincials and get down to town.

“I gave her the push to go and then we got closer with her being there, riding trackwork together and driving to the races together.

“She always got on with everyone. She definitely was great. A great girl.”

Weir and Singleton combine with Street Force ($6) in the Highway Handicap at Newcastle’s standalone meeting on Saturday, and she hoped they could win for Neale.

“I’m glad she got in that race,” Weir said.

“I think she can run well. She’s stepping up to the mile, that’s the only thing.

“I thought 1400m might pull her up, but Scott doesn’t seem to think so, and she’s drawn eight. She’s been drawing terrible lately and I’ve had to go back, so at least I might be able to ride her in a better spot.”

Weir also rides Northam-trained Nova Centauri ($101) in a race renamed Izzy’s Gift, in recognition for Neale’s organ donation. Weir rode it to victory at Scone two starts ago.

Neale also has a connection with Poisen Point, which races in the fifth with champion apprentice Siena Grima aboard. Neale rode the mare in one of her final wins, at Coonamble on October 11, for former boss Brett Robb.

Jockeys wore black armbands at Wednesday’s Warwick Farm meeting in Neale’s honour and the Australian Turf Club will look to name a race after her next week.