Pivotal Ten taking Wynne on the ride of her life
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • February 21st, 2025 9:52 AM
Dual licence-holder Sam Wynne is still getting used to where she finds herself as the trainer/jockey of one of the country’s most exciting young gallopers, Pivotal Ten.
After growing up in suburban Dublin, half a lifetime ago the 36-year-old was in the early stages of finding her way in racing as an apprentice jockey in her native Ireland.
“We grew up in Tallaght, which is a pretty rough area in Dublin, and learnt to ride bareback on ponies,” Wynne told RaceForm days after combining with Pivotal Ten for their fifth consecutive win together in Saturday’s Listed Ascot Park Hotel Southland Guineas.
“I was happy to spend my time riding horses and playing football, and it was only when a stable was built in the middle of our housing estate that I thought about riding as a career.
“My older brother Damian encouraged me to get into horses – he still likes to remind me of that – and when I was 16, I enrolled in the apprentice jockey school in Kildare. Even though the only winner I rode was in an apprentice competition in Slovakia of all places, I learnt a lot but I still needed to get the right break.”
That meant heading Down Under and in 2012 Wynne signed up with North Canterbury trainer Neil Coulbeck. One of her contacts was fellow Irishwoman Amy Johnson, who she had become acquainted with during their shared time in Kildare. Johnson subsequently moved to New Zealand and is now NZTR’s Christchurch-based head of education, training and recruitment.
“I got to know Amy in Kildare and we were both working in Florida at the same time too. Then when I arrived in New Zealand she was a very helpful contact, and Neil was a good boss to get me going.
“My biggest problem was getting itchy feet to ride in races, but Neil made me wait a few months until he thought I was ready. It was the right thing to do and my first ride was a winner at Ashburton.”
Wynne’s jockey career developed in leaps and bounds – another 13 wins in her debut 2012-13 season, followed by tallies of 43, 51, 63 and what is still a career-high 71 in 2016-17. Injury has stalled her more than once, in particular when she rode only seven winners in 2018-19, but she’s happy to reflect on a tally of 444 wins from 3,729 rides, 18 of them in stakes races.
Having become the partner of Scott Laming, the son of Canterbury trainer Shane Laming, and getting closer to that side of racing, Wynne took out her trainer’s licence in 2022. Initially she trained “one or two horses” and got near-immediate results with three wins from 22 raceday starts in her first two seasons, but more recently those numbers have ramped up.
Last season Wynne prepared six winners and now, just past the halfway stage of the current season, she bettered that tally with Pivotal Ten’s runaway win in the Southland Guineas. Along with victories in the Listed NZB Insurance Stakes and Gore Guineas, Wynne has also been credited with the first three stakes wins of her brief training career, each time wearing her very Irish stable colours of emerald green with gold logo.
“To begin with I was happy to have a small team, but then when I was approached by Colin Wightman to take on several of his horses, I was lucky to be able to lease a property at Ohoka, not far from where we live in Kaiapoi.
“There are two tracks there – a wood-chip and a sand with a good watering system – also it’s not far to the beach and I can alternate between Rangiora and Riccarton when I want to take them to the track.
“I’m very lucky to have some wonderful people supporting me, great girls on the staff who put in so much, Donovan Cooper and Brett Murray riding work, and Tina (Comignaghi) when I need her – I couldn’t do all this without them.”
Wynne pinches herself that Pivotal Ten, a filly by Ten Sovereigns bought by Wightman for just $15,000 as a weanling from the Valachi Downs dispersal sale, has become the South Island’s headline act with five wins from seven starts and a cumulative margin of more than 26 lengths in that sequence.
“For a horse that showed very little to begin with but has just kept getting better, she surprises us every time she steps out,” says Wynne. “As her jockey you just point her in the right direction and she more or less does the rest.
“She spent a few weeks down south on her latest campaign and it’s taken a bit of practice, but she’s a real racehorse now, her attitude and her nature, she’s become very tractable.
“On Saturday I was able to hold the rail and lead, then I just let her run. I set her on a bit of a mission I suppose, and even though I never like to, I had to take a peep over my shoulder at the 200 because I didn’t want to be told off for hitting her if she was winning easily, and that’s how it turned out.”
The bush telegraph since has been that Pivotal Ten is likely to be picked up by a slot-holder for the NZB Kiwi at Ellerslie on March 8, but Wynne is content to leave those negotiations and any final decision to Wightman. What may be considered a key indicator is that her odds on the TAB’s futures market have plummeted, from $21 to $16 immediately after Saturday’s win and by Monday to the fourth line of betting on $12.
“It would be huge to head up north for a race like that,” says Wynne. “The way she ran 1400 metres the other day I’ve got no concerns that she’ll run the extra distance (1500m) if she’s asked to.
“The way she’s been winning her races we still don’t know what her limit is, so you could say there’s only one way to find out!”
*Since this article went to print on Wednesday morning, Pivotal Ten has been confirmed to run in the NZB Kiwi following negotiations between her owner Colin Wightman and Mike Kneebone, representing slot-holder the Selangor Turf Club.
Photograph at the top of the page: Southern sensation Pivotal Ten and her trainer/jockey Sam Wynne celebrate another win together. Credit: RaceForm
