The horse racing scenes have welcomed a new talent out to conquer the races. Jockey Madison or Maddy Olver, who first watched a live race only when she took on the practice, hopped nations to clinch her first stakes win on Saturday. An exercise rider, a position by the trainer, and a year-long apprenticeship later, the 23-year-old etched a start to her career rather well.

Maddy Olver found her interest in the sport in 2017, fresh out of high school. The path that followed required every inch of effort the youngster could lend through barns and training grounds. The people and the journey further helped Olver make her debut and clinch a stake a year and a half later.

A lead to the wire

On Saturday, the Aqueduct Racetrack hosted the $175,000 Toboggan (G3) for 4-year-olds. In a field of seven, 16-race started Super Chow raced to dominate the grounds and record the first 2024 victory for him and a first stakes win for his jockey, Maddy Olver. The duo marked a lead from the whistle and never let the position slip away. In doing so, Olver and Super Chow posted a 4 1/4-length victory; etching a memory to last for years to come. Celebrating the moment, the jockey took to her Instagram to share love. “I’m not crying, you are crying,” the re-shared story read. Tears or not, it was an emotional run for the youngster.

“It means the world,” Olver told Paulick Report. “It’s a culmination of everything I have wanted since I first started with the racehorses,” she further added. Though Maddy Olver had ridden horses from a young age, it was in 2017, under trainer Gina Rarick, that she found her calling for horse racing. The journey from then on was pure bliss for the racing enthusiast housed in the 23-year-old.

The community for a family

Maddy Olver started as an exercise rider for trainer Gina Rarick in France in 2017. Finding her love for the sport or rather, a thrill for racing, the youngster headed to work under champion trainer Christophe Clement in the US. According to him, Maddy proved an excellent talent when she successfully managed an anxious filly. “Even if she was anxious, she was always manageable with Maddy,” Clement tells Paulick Report. The experience helped the youngster further her opportunities at smaller stables to gain a jockey’s license and racing agent Joe Migliore.

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Migliore, ran across the New York circuit to ask trainers to recruit Olver. “Advertise them as young, hungry, learning, improving,” were his words. And by November 2022, she made her debut aboard Orlando Noda-trained Flattering Gal at Aqueduct. From fetching interest to earning first win, the people throughout have been Maddy Olver’s family. “I will carry with me forever,” she says, speaking of each’s contribution.

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