‘It doesn’t feel right’: Jockey riding through grief for fallen friend
Detailed summary
Senior rider Mikayla Weir “doesn’t feel right” about racing continuing on after the loss of Izzy Neale, but she hopes to honour her friend with a win on Saturday.
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.
“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”.
“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.
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