Champion jockey Jamie Kah opens up on new outlook on life after two horror years
Australia’s best female jockey Jamie Kah reveals how injury and an off-track scandal convinced her to get rid of people who ‘don’t give a shit about me’.
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Jamie Kah’s inner circle is far smaller since the controversies that plagued her last year – and coupled with a life-threatening fall, both left her with a new outlook on what’s important.
In fact, her struggle for survival has left the famed Aussie jockey happier than she’s ever been.
This is her year, she says – even three months in, it’s her best yet – although anything would have been better than 2023, she laughs.
But six months ago, she wasn’t laughing.
She was recovering from a fall that could have killed her, and reeling from a very public cocaine scandal not so long after bearing the brunt of breaching Covid lockdown restrictions back in 2021.
“Now I value life more, just enjoying life and enjoying good parts,” says Kah, who recently became engaged to fellow jockey Ben Melham.
“I have no care anymore for people that don’t care about your life … that go into your life and think you’re just a jockey, that’s it, that’s your job, your life. I have changed my perspective about that.
“My circle is a lot smaller now … just people that I find important and that care about me and everything has changed in that sense.
“It’s not worth it. Even with trainers I’ve tried to be really respectful to my whole life – and that don’t give a shit about me really.
“Now I’m like, ‘Nup, not doing it’.”
It’s been the toughest of times for the Adelaide born, Melbourne-based 28-year-old, who acknowledges she’s made mistakes – but navigating the world of celebrity for the record-breaking jockey, who remains at the top of her game despite the lows – made things all but unmanageable.
“That’s why I feel so sorry for actual celebrities. I don’t know how they get through life,” Kah says.
“It’s not something I want to talk about too much, but if I can say one sexist thing, it’s if I was a guy, then the media and the public would not have ran with it as much as they did. That’s how I feel.
“Obviously, it was a mistake being in a bad place at the wrong time, and I just feel like if I wasn’t who I was, if I wasn’t a female, there was no chance that it would have escalated the way it did.
“And hopefully, one day that will change, but I just don’t see it changing very soon.”
She’s talking about the notorious “white powder” scandal, when she was blindsided by a secret video shot by stablehand Ruby McIntyre, which included images of Kah cutting up the powder on a plate.
Kah and McIntyre pleaded not guilty to conduct prejudicial to the image, interests, integrity or welfare of racing, and while Kah was cleared of any wrongdoing at a Victorian Racing Tribunal hearing in December, last week McIntyre, who was found guilty, was suspended for three months and fined $750 by the three-person panel.
Kah just wants it all behind her, but was adamant it would have played out very differently if she was a man.
“If that was my partner, Ben, that’d be a story, and then people would just forget about it and move on,” she continues.
“But because I am who I am, and all that crap, it’s front page news. And that’s the challenging part of it.
“But no one in the industry, no trainers, ever judged me differently because of that.
“And that made me really respect them more.
“It does help riding good horses and riding winners, obviously, but it’s just the little things – like getting engaged, like riding a winner for a really good person, a good group of owners – it just makes you so much happier to be in this sport.
“It’s a great sport, but there’s some very challenging times in it, and the way this year’s started, I’m just so excited for it. I think it’s gonna be my best year yet, hopefully.”
HAPPIER THAN EVER
Today, she’s easily the happiest she’s ever been. Speaking from her favourite place in the world, her farm on the Mornington Peninsula, watching her dog at the gate and looking out at her ponies, she’s never felt more at home – or comfortable in her own skin.
Maybe it’s her impending wedding to her other half, Ben Melham.
Maybe it’s the lure of a quieter life, settling down and starting a family being dangled like a carrot at the finish line.
Or maybe it’s that she survived a fall that could have ended not only her career, but her life.
All of those things have changed her, she admits.
“It’s actually funny because I barely remember anything from before the fall or in the lead-up … and then watching the documentary I was refreshing my memory,” she says.
“I can’t remember shit from back then.
“That’s probably the reason why I got back on the horse and kept riding, because I actually can’t remember anything.
“And if I did remember, I think that’d be worse.
“A friend of mine, Ethan Brown, he fell just before me and was in hospital – and he remembers everything, and it was really challenging for him and he took a bit of time off from racing.
“I think if I remembered everything, then I’d be different. But I’m glad I don’t remember it.”
In fact, the last thing she remembers from that fateful day was arriving at the track.
“I remember talking to the lady that weighs us in and out – and I said, ‘Can I borrow your phone?’ because we’re not allowed phones in there and I bloody forgot my form,” Kah explains.
“My mum was in the car and I called her, and I remember she brought the form, the newspaper in for me – but that’s the last thing I remember.
“I don’t remember walking out or getting on the horse or anything.
“I don’t even remember like a month afterwards in hospital – apparently my fiance, Ben, my mum and dad were in there talking to me and said it was like talking through a glass wall – I couldn’t hear anything. So I’m glad I don’t remember it.”
Kah features in Miles In Front – a new documentary that was filmed between January and March last year, counting down to the All-Star Mile at Moonee Valley Racecourse.
There are rare interviews with her, along with superstar trainers Annabel Neasham, Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr.
It also shows shocking aerial footage of the moment the world’s top-ranked female jockey fell to the ground in a horror incident that by her own admission, changed everything.
After winning the same prestigious $5m race at Flemington a year earlier, this one left her in a coma with a serious head injury.
Watching Miles In Front was the first time Kah had even seen the footage.
“I just feel like I’m watching a race. There are falls all the time, which is horrible,” she says.
“If I remembered being on the horse and remembered the fall, I think it would be different, but I don’t remember it at all.
“I watched it with the stewards and they were trying to ask what they thought caused it, and I’m like, ‘Honestly, I can’t remember being on that horse – sorry, I can’t help you’.”
It took five months at home for Kah to recover. A time when she questioned a lot and, for the first time, really saw the dangers of what she does through the eyes of people who love her.
“I’ve never thought that before,” she says, of giving it all up.
“And then I remember the first few months I was home (after the accident) and I rode my ponies, and Mum said to me, ‘You know you don’t have to be a jockey – you don’t have to do it’ … I was like, ‘Why would you say that? Like, I love it’. And then on Ben’s phone there were a few photos of me in hospital and I couldn’t even recognise myself. It was horrific.
“And my mum had to see that every day.
“I didn’t ever think to stop, but I just thought … there’s so much more to life than – this.”
After extensive rehabilitation, she went on to be the most successful jockey at last year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival, back at Flemington. And her first race was fittingly for friend and acclaimed trainer, Annabel Neasham.
“It was cool because that was for Annabel on Zaaki – and she wrote something saying, ‘We’ve missed her, we need her back and I have full confidence in her’,” she says.
“She never for one second said, ‘Do you think you’re OK to ride?’ … and never put that in my mind. And I think that helped a lot, as well.
“And I was riding a lot at home, too.
“But the first time I rode I probably shouldn’t have; I felt like I was drunk, it was just a weird feeling. But I made sure I was right before I rode.
“If I had remembered falling, it would be different, but because I didn’t remember anything, I never doubted that I was able to ride.
“But obviously the media wrote a lot of things that I just didn’t read in the end, because it does make you second-guess … like, ‘Oh, maybe I’m not ready’.
“You’ve just got to trust the people around you, and not for one second did anyone in the industry that I ride for, or the owners, say anything negative about me.
“They were just so positive.
“The public and the media were different – but that’s where you just gotta shut it all out. You shouldn’t have to, but in the end, you do.
“The people in the industry were amazing throughout the horrible few months of my life.”
Her victory on February 24 at Caulfield’s Blue Diamond Stakes remind her what winning is meant to feel like – something she lost track of for a little while.
“The other day, winning the Blue Diamond for such a good person who cares so much about me, Clinton McDonald – it just meant the world,” she says.
“It wasn’t just, ‘I’ve won a race’ … it was like, this is what it should feel like, with these good people around you.
“It just made me feel so different compared to what I used to feel like.
“I’m happy.
“I’m not happy the fall happened to me obviously, but it’s changed how I see things nowadays.”
WEDDING BELLS
From one diamond to another, Kah can’t stop admiring the rock on her finger after Melham’s romantic proposal aptly timed on Valentine’s Day. While she wants nothing more than to tie the knot “as soon as possible”, their big day is looking like it will take place next January.
And what a start to 2025 that will be for the happy couple.
“I can’t stop looking at it (the ring),” she laughs.
“This year I was like, ‘Obviously, it’s gonna have to be better than last year but, so far, it’s the best year and this is what it should be all about. Just enjoying it with good people and a couple of diamonds in two weeks. That was pretty special.”
And he popped the question with her other two favourite boys in tow – horses Dollars and Brax – although the proposition of a leisurely ride together did spark suspicion.
“It’s quite funny – I thought, ‘He’s done something wrong and he’s apologising’ because he never goes for horse rides outside of racing with me,” she says.
“He even brought my horses in from the paddock and was like, ‘Do you want to go for a trail ride?’ And I was like, ‘What’s wrong with you? What have you done wrong?’ He even brought them in and saddled up and we went for a ride, with my two favourite horses, both ex racehorses.
“It was so cute.
“And we tied them up and went to get a little drink from the coffee shop and I was like, ‘OK, is this where he says he’s f– ked up and done something wrong?’,” she laughs.
“And when he asked me, I was like, ‘Oh, this is perfect’.
“Because a big fancy lunch would have been overkill, but that was just beautiful.
“I had my ponies there, my three favourite boys.
“Right now I’m sitting at my favourite place in the world, which is my little farm and my dog Bubbles is trotting around, I love her and I’m just happy, being home with my horses and not having anyone around.
“It’s in the Mornington Peninsula but it feels like it’s the middle of nowhere when I’m here.
“Just after everything that’s happened in the last year, I just love being away from everyone and riding my horses.
“I’ve got a really nice warmblood cross thoroughbred, a show jumper, and I was just so happy yesterday. I was just out there riding him and it just makes you feel like nothing can get better than this.
“It’s weird but I’m just so happy being at home and being away from all the hype and all the media and all the everything, just talking to people. I love being at home around my horses.
They don’t talk back.”
ROLE MODEL
Kah says navigating the scrutiny of the spotlight is the hardest part of her career, but knowing that little girls admire her makes it all worth it. It makes her want to be better.
“It feels so weird – it’s been like this for a long time, especially since I’ve come to Melbourne, but I just feel so sorry for actual celebrities … how they deal with life,” she says.
“I don’t know how they deal with it. But I’m very good at shutting it all out now.
“And this farm is so great because I can be here if I have a week off or if I’m suspended or injured or whatever, and just cut yourself off from everyone else.
“I used to look at Twitter and Instagram – and now I just shut off and I just don’t read it.
“It just doesn’t affect me anymore.
“It takes a long time – I’ve been riding for 11 or 12 years now, and the first few years, it was really, really challenging.
“Because people just treat you like you’re a jockey and that’s it, like you’re not human.
“And what they write punches. You get used to it in the end, but it’s not a fun thing to start off with.
“You shouldn’t have to get used to it. But then, in the end, I’ll get a few messages from random people and they’ll just be so lovely.
“Like, ‘My daughter was crying watching you ride that winner yesterday. She looks up to you’ – just little things.
“And that makes you think, ‘Shit, there are actually beautiful people in the world still’.
“So that’s helped me block out the negative. People give you death threats and ‘hope your family blah, blah, blah’ – and to me now, they’re just no one.
“I don’t even read it anymore.
“My PA lady, she goes on my Instagram and deletes bad comments and bad things and blocks them so I don’t have to read them.”
Straight from riding today, Kah jets off to Adelaide, where she grew up, to mentor young aspiring riders at a pony event. And even though she has to race straight back to Melbourne for a wedding, she can’t wait.
“It’s still weird (being a role model), but to be honest, it’s the only media thing that I look forward to,” she says.
“But I absolutely love doing this. I’m so excited about going and doing this because the kids – boys or girls, it doesn’t matter – they’re just so innocent.
“And they just want to be like you.
“If they want to be a jockey or whatever they want to do in the industry, they’re just so gorgeous.
“The other day I rode a winner and (a young fan), she was crying, and wanted my goggles and so I gave them to her and she was crying that she wants to be like me when she grows up.
“And that’s the stuff that makes you go, ‘OK, you’ve done something right in your life’, and you want to be the best person and the best thing for them.
“Most jockeys or people would be like, ‘I don’t want to go ride a horse on my day off’ – but I’m so excited about it, I think it’s gonna be so much fun.”
There aren’t many industry experts, trainers or even punters who wouldn’t say Kah’s ability to ride winners has changed racing in Australia.
In her home state of Victoria alone, almost a third of jockeys are now female, and that number is set to grow, with aspiring female riders representing 75 per cent of apprentices inducted over the past five years.
In fact, Racing Victoria says, of their new apprentice intake, 10 of the 11 are women.
“It’s crazy,” says Kah, of the female uptake in racing.
“When I started, I never followed racing beforehand and didn’t know about the male-dominated sport, and my boss at the time put me on every single one of his horses.
“He told the owners that I was riding it, and he just put faith in me, that I could do it.
“And that gave me so much confidence.
“I’ve never, ever had to go out there and prove that I’m better than the boys.
“They just put me on … trusted me.
“Obviously you have to get the results that they want, and ride them well, but I feel like hopefully I’ve shown females in the industry now that, as long as you believe that you’re good enough, and you go on and ride winners, you ride well, they’ll put you on.
“Hopefully I’ve changed a few of the negative male minds that we are good enough – put us on and we’ll show you that.
“I’ve never really had that issue. But I think that comes from when I started, my boss … put me on every single horse of his, and there should be more people like that around.
“I think nowadays there is, but back then, it was like, ‘Wow, this person’s very special’.”
Someone else who is “very special” in her life is her fiance Melham.
“It’s scary, we’re just the same people,” she laughs.
“Everyone has their opinion of people, and people have a bad opinion of Ben – but he was in hospital (with me) every single day, apparently. I don’t remember it but he was there every single day after track work, all hours of the night.
“And ever since then, he’s moved in to the farm with me, doesn’t let me out of sight.
“He just cared so much about me.
“I think it’s meant to be. It’s perfect.”
BEST IN THE BUSINESS
Today, Kah has at least seven rides at Flemington’s Super Saturday and next week she’ll be racing the All-Star Mile at Caulfield on Ayrton. Last Saturday she rode Southport Tycoon to take out the Australian Guineas title at Flemington, marking her 11th Group 1 victory.
In a few weeks she’ll try her hand at Sydney’s Golden Slipper, again on her Blue Diamond winner, Hayasugi. And at the end of the month it’s Flemington’s Australia Cup Day, followed by Doncaster Day and Queen Elizabeth Stakes Day in April.
It’s a lot, and she’s busy, but hoping to turn down a notch next year when she’s a newlywed, and the lure of family life gets stronger.
“Absolutely (that’s the dream),” she says of starting a family with Melham, who has three children from a previous marriage.
“With racing, it’s not like I’m slowing down, but I’m just riding races and the days that are important. I’m not going to be riding every week and give my whole time up to racing.
“There’s so much more. My parents have moved out from Adelaide, and I do a lot with them now and they’ve got ponies here and we go riding all the time and just enjoy life.
“That’s what’s made me so happy lately.
“I want to get married as soon as I can, but obviously it’s all a big waiting list, but so far, I think January next year is as soon as I can get in.
“I want to get to the next stage in life. I love my job, and I love racing. But when you fall, you realise there’s so much more to life. Nothing else matters.
“Although … he’s still an asshole,” she says of Melham, laughing. “But we’re both assholes.” ■
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Originally published as Champion jockey Jamie Kah opens up on new outlook on life after two horror years
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