Top amateur jockey Charli Parker strikes high note after series of painful setbacks
An amateur jockey has spoken of her joy and pride after battling back from two debilitating injuries to become this year’s Amateur Jockeys Association of Great Britain top female rider.
Charli Parker, a member of Stillington-based trainer Ruth Carr’s team, said lifting the title was particularly sweet after spending months working with the Injured Jockeys Fund’s Jack Berry House rehabilitation centre in Malton earlier this year.
She said months of hard work getting back in the saddle had paid off.
Charli said: “You have to be strong mentally as well as physically. This has been about proving to myself that I can do it.”
The 23-year-old had already been familiar with both the Ryedale centre and the rehabilitation processs.
In 2024, less than a year after joining Ruth’s yard as a groom, box driver and amateur rider, Charli suffered a fractured collar bone while training Etihad Rail. Without warning, the bay gelding tripped and his back end came over him and landed on Charli.
While that injury involved rehabilitating through strength work in the gym, a heavy fall while riding Star Start at the end of August last year, after becoming short of room in the 1m3f amateur jockeys' handicap at Ripon, saw Charli taken to hospital after sustaining a head injury.
She said her rehabilitation had involved balance work through to eyesight treatment.
Charli returned to racing in December at Southwell aboard four-year-old bay gelding Bad Habits only to suffer another severe fall in March.
She said: “A massive credit to Jack Berry House, who have looked after me no end, and I don't think I'd be back without them.
“They cheered me up every day and generally looked after me. You just don’t get that anywhere else.”
Charli said: "After the first fall I was concussed and had a few vestibular issues.
"After the second one, which was right at the beginning of the flat season in March, I felt it was going to be really hard to come back from.
“I couldn’t do much for a while. I was really dependent on being driven around and was really grateful I had Jack Berry House.
“It was mentally quite challenging, because they were back to back and I hadn’t ridden much in between."
Ruth said battling back from an injury like that “shows a pretty impressive mindset”.
She said: “I don’t think people realise how tough it can be because concussion is an invisible injury. I think Charli didn’t realise how bad it was until a long time afterwards. It’s not something you can work on in the gym like a broken ankle. It’s patience and time and not getting too down about it.”
Charli also credits Ruth’s close-knit team as being key to her recovery and subsequent success.
Ruth said: "I work closely with them every day and ride out with them six days a week. I like to think of us as a team rather than an employer and employees.”
It’s 29 years since Ruth rode 13 winners to become leading amateur rider on the flat, and recalls her proudest moments as riding winners against the professional jump jockeys.
Charli said: “Ruth has taken a chance on me and I don’t know anyone else would have done.
“It’s quite a big thing to trust someone again after a thing like that.
“We knew I had a shot at top female jockey about a month ago."
Ruth asked Grange Park Racing if Charli could ride eight-year-old Jojo Rabbit in a five furlong race at Catterick in September and to the jockeys delight, the owner said yes.
The combination went many lengths clear inside final furlong to take victory and with previous wins aboard Star Start earlier in the month at Haydock as well as at Pontefract in August propelled Charli to the top of the table.
Out of 57 starts, six-year-old Star Start, which Ruth describes as a "horse for apprentice and amateur riders races” has clocked up eight wins and some £28,069 in winnings.
“It put me in really great position and after that it was about holding on to that lead”, said Charli. “In the closing stages it felt like it could go either way. I’m super pleased and want to go back and do it again next year.
"Having done it once will put me in a good position next year as hopefully other owners and trainers will be more likely to use me, so fingers crossed this might be a springboard to better things.
"If the chance to turn professional came I wouldn’t say no, but at the moment I’ve just got to keep progressing and see how it goes really.”