Dream come early — former Albany local Indianna Weinert youngest thoroughbred horse trainer in the State

Indianna Weinert always dreamed of becoming a thoroughbred horse trainer, but she wasn’t planning to start her new career so early. The former Albany local was doing an apprenticeship as a jockey and had plans to start training her own horses after that, but her apprenticeship was cut short. Now aged 24, Weinert is the youngest trainer in the State and fulfilling her dream. “I always had dreams of becoming a trainer in the future once I had done a jockey apprenticeship,” she said. “Once my apprenticeship finished early because I couldn’t maintain jockey weight, I guess my training dream started earlier than I thought. “‘Excited’ is an understatement to take on this challenge. “I really want to put my all into this and hopefully get rewarded. “It is a big step at my stage, it’s a lot of responsibility but I have had that from a young age so I feel like I am ready. “I feel I can work my way up, I feel like I’ve had enough experience and ridden enough race horses to understand what it takes. “However, there is always a lot to learn in this industry and it will still be a learning curve now I have horses of my own.” Weinert is situated on a 14ha property in Hopeland and has eight horses in her stable, with four in work. She had her first two starters at York earlier this month, with both finishing fifth. Weinert is working towards little milestones early in her career. “At this stage my goal is to win my first race,” she said. “I’m excited to bring some horses from over east into my stable. “I want to have a go with horses with different breed lines to a lot of the horses in Perth but I am going to work hard towards winning big races in the future. “I’m most looking forward to really having fun with this and going to the races with my horses. “I love my horses and I enjoy making them happy so they can perform.” Weinert started her racing career in Albany with Roy Rogers riding trackwork about six years ago, before moving to Perth to pursue her jockey career. “Roy taught me a lot about the racing industry and how to ride trackwork,” Weinert said. “After that I came to Perth to start my jockey apprenticeship with David Harrison and I was very lucky to be given lots of opportunities. “But I couldn’t keep my weight down enough, so sadly had to finish my apprenticeship early, which was a tough decision to make.” Able Star and Carlin Road were Weinert’s first starters, while Tidal Passage and Miss Kenzington are both yet to have a trial or race start. Bluebell and Luftwaffe are both former Eastern States gallopers, while she also has two unnamed babies in her stable.