DARLINGTON-born jockey Michaela Sowerby fulfilled a long-held ambition by riding her first-ever winner last Thursday.

On Tarawan, she romped to easy five-length success in the mile-and-a-quarter David Scott Lady Riders Handicap at Doncaster.

"The five furlong home straight means you can hear the roar of the crowd from a long way out," said a triumphant Michaela.

"It was a fantastic feeling, plus something of a relief after three years of trying to ride a winner."

The 21-year-old former Hummersknot Comprehensive pupil valiantly passed five GCSEs, although by her own admission didn't like school one bit.

"All I ever wanted to do was work with horses, I got my first pony, Foxy, when I was 13 and kept him at a farm near Eppelby thanks to the Master of the Zetland Hunt, Paul Morrison.

"My dad used to come off night shift at 5am and drive me from Cockerton to the Hunt kennels at Aldborough St John where I helped look after the hounds before school started," says Michaela.

After leaving Hummersknot in 1998, Michaela maintained her involvement in Hunting by getting a local job as a groom for a year, but following a visit to Ann Swinbank's Richmond training stables she decided to enrol at the Newmarket Apprentices' School in the hope of making a career in race-riding.

Having successfully completed the intensive nine-week course, she secured a place at the Kingsclere yard of the ex-Derby winning trainer Ian Balding, near Newbury in Berkshire, where the great Mill Reef ruled the roost in 1971.

"I was light enough to ride on the Flat at around seven-and-a-half-stones and the boss gave me a quite few rides as an apprentice, but I didn't have any winners and then about this time last year I was thrown by a difficult yearling and broke two vertebrae.

"As a result of having to have time off my weight went up and so my chances dried up," she said.

Totally undeterred by the accident, a fit-again Michaela successfully applied for an amateur licence last December and thanks to Andrew Balding, who has now taken over the reins from his father Ian, got the opportunity to partner Tarawan.

Reigning champion amateur jockey, Leyburn-based Carol Williams, looking on in fourth place when Tarawan won, said: "Michaela rides really well and she's very neat and tidy.

"I'd been ringing up to 30 trainers every week and not getting anywhere, maybe now I've ridden a winner they'll take notice," said a determined Michaela, who lists victory in the Ladies' Derby, together with getting a licence to ride over jumps, as two of her top priorities.