Cover image courtesy of Dubbo Turf Club
The Thoroughbred industry is in mourning after the family of apprentice jockey Izzy Neale shared on Tuesday afternoon that she has passed away.
The 22-year-old was involved in a fall in race 6 at Warren on Saturday and was airlifted to Dubbo Hospital after attending medical professionals deemed the risk of flying to Sydney too high.
Neale’s mount Marnoo (Holler) suffered a catastrophic injury at the 400-metre mark and fell, which also brought down Shadow Dane (Rebel Dane) and jockey Diego Montes de Oca, who has been discharged from hospital with soft tissue injuries. Marnoo was euthanised as a result of the injury, while a veterinary assessment found no abnormalities with Shadow Dane.
The rest of the Warren meeting was called off, and the meeting at Scone, where Neale was on loan to trainer Scott Singleton, scheduled for Monday was postponed to Wednesday.
Neale’s condition was reported as critical, with no further news coming until her family shared the following statement via Racing NSW’s social channels:
Born less than an hour from Scone in the Upper Hunter town of Merriwa, Neale’s lifelong passion for horses led her to ride trackwork for Scone trainer Rod Northam, late Muswellbrook trainer Pat Farrell, and Dubbo trainer Brett Robb, to whom Neale would be indentured for her apprenticeship. She also spent a year in Sydney honing her craft under the eye of John Thompson.
Initially pursuing an amateur licence before being granted her apprenticeship, Neale scored her first winner with Scruff’s Magic (Magic Albert) at Condobolin in February 2024 - the first of 88 winners in her career. Twenty nine of those winners were with Robb, and a further 13 with Scott Singleton, whom she was on loan to at the time of the fall.
In July, Neale made her city breakthrough with Robb’s It’s A Tata (Pierata), guiding the gelding to his fourth straight win when taking out the $120,000 Highway Handicap at Rosehill. Neale had partnered the gelding to all eight of his career runs, including a fourth at Randwick at his following start.
Neale had recently been back in town when steering Irish Jig (Star Turn) to a close second in the country-only metropolitan race on November 3, having guided the promising Ole Steele (Ole Kirk) to win Newcastle’s $60,000 Super Maiden days before.
To ride for regional trainers like Cody Morgan, Connie Greig, Kieren Hazelton, and Gavin Groth, Neale would travel from Bathurst to Moree to ride, and back again. For horses she believed in and for those who gave her the opportunity, she would make the trip for just one ride. She was committed to turning up every day for what was her dream career.
To her family and friends, Neale was someone who lit up the room when she entered and lifted the mood of the stable when she arrived in the morning. The Scone community where she has long been a familiar face at trackwork has been left with a hole that cannot be filled.
Vale Izzy Neale, may you ride many more winners up there.
