Amelia Green tells Jon Lees how she crossed the Atlantic and became an integral figure in the Todd Pletcher operation behind the Pegasus World Cup hero.
USA: Once apprenticed to Frankel’s legendary trainer Sir Henry Cecil, Amelia Green left Britain bound for the US looking for the opportunity to develop her career as a Flat jockey.
She last rode in a race six years ago. Yet as a key player in the rise of world #1 Life Is Good, life couldn’t be better for the 28-year-old from Nottingham.
The Todd Pletcher-trained four-year-old blitzed his rivals last weekend in the Pegasus World Cup with a dominant display that took him ahead of Gulfstream victim at the top of the TRC Global Rankings.
Green was namechecked in the post-race NBC interview with Pletcher, who lauded her role in the development of Life Is Good as the colt's regular exercise rider. “I wasn’t expecting Todd to say what he did,” she says.
“I just feel very lucky to ride the horse. I am under no illusion that if somebody else rode him he would still be the very talented horse that he is.”
The Pegasus was a sixth win in only seven career starts for Life Is Good, who would be unbeaten but for the neck by which he went down to top-class Jackie’s Warrior on his return from a layoff at Saratoga last August following his coast-to-coast switch from Bob Baffert’s barn to the Pletcher operation.
He went on to record a commanding victory in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, thereby setting up a much anticipated showdown with Knicks Go. In the event, however, the duel never materialised as Life Is Good slammed his rival, making all the running to win by 3¼ lengths.
'We all knew the talent he had'
“I’d like to think we were very confident going in," she says. "But he was up against the best horse in the world so you never know how it is going to pan out and we weren’t sure if it was going to be a speed duel at the front end, which it didn’t turn out to be.
“We were very excited and anxious to get to the race and finally let him show the world how good he is. We're just so proud of the horse. We all knew the talent he had and how easily he does everything at home."
Out on his own at Gulfstream, Life Is Good also prefers to be out on his own in the mornings. Aside from Irad Ortiz, Green is his only other partner, in the saddle for nearly all his preparation, often under cover of darkness.
“I like to think we get along with each other in the mornings,” she says. “He can be a handful. For the most part, day in, day out. I canter him, galloping him every day and on his breeze mornings, normally once a week, unless Irad comes in.
“We have figured out he likes to train first thing in the morning. He likes to be the first horse on the track and if you let him go out on a quiet track, preferably in the dark, he is a lot more relaxed than if you took him later on in the morning with a busy track with breezers. He appreciates a quiet track, nobody being around him and just him out there.”
'I was small and light and loved horses'
Growing up in Nottingham, Green represented England as a teenage show jumper before switching attention to horse racing, on the advice of her grandfather Peter, himself a former jumps trainer. “I was small and light and loved horses,” she recalls.
“I did the nine-week course at the British Racing School and that was where I met Frank Conlon, who has been a big part of why I got to where I am.
“He used to be head lad for Henry Cecil so he hooked me up with him and I got a job straight off the back of the racing school. I was lucky to get in a big yard straight away.”
Cecil gave her her first ride at Ascot in July 2012 where she finished third on a filly called Feelthedifference in an apprentice race. “I wished I could have got a winner for Henry,” she reflects. “That would have been something to treasure. Unfortunately that never happened before he passed away.
After three and a half years in Newmarket, Green made the move to the US where she rode her first winner for Californian trainer George Papaprodromou at Hollywood Park.
'It wasn't enjoyable for me anymore'
“George offered to sponsor my visa,” she explains. “So I got a five-year visa and went to work for him.
“I tried for a year and then took a break. I moved to Maryland to concentrate purely on being a jockey and ultimately I couldn’t do the weight. I struggled every day to drop from 120lb to 112lb and decided that wasn’t the life I wanted to live.
“I couldn’t hang out with friends, couldn’t go out to dinner and have a social life. It wasn’t enjoyable for me anymore.”
Having ridden nine winners from 148 mounts, Green returned to California where she became assistant to Papaprodromou before being introduced to Pletcher by his former assistant Michael McCarthy, who won the Pegasus in his own right as a trainer with the brilliant City Of Light in 2019.
“I told Michael I was looking for a change so he called Todd to ask if he had a job,” she says. “I was told to call Todd tomorrow at 11am. I called him the next day and he offered me a job over the phone. A month later I was on the other side of America in Florida.”
Continuously on the move, Green says her car is her home, explaining: “When we send the string to Keeneland in the spring and the fall, and when we go to the Breeders’ Cup, and when we go places where we don’t have a string all-year round, that’s where I go, filling in the spots that need filling.
“I have to rent a place everywhere I go but be ready with a suitcase packed whenever needed. I might have to invest in a mobile home!”
'You’d have to say Life Is Good is the best and most talented'
Currently based with the string in Palm Beach Downs, Florida, Green’s next move will be to Pletcher’s New York base at Belmont Park, by which time a programme may have been mapped out for Life Is Good.
“Hopefully he has a big year,” she says.”As long as he is healthy and well, hopefully he can keep showing everyone how good he is.”
But just how good is that? “I’ve ridden some very nice horses for Todd in four and a half years,” says Green.
“I went to the Kentucky Oaks with Malathaat when she won last year. I rode Audible when he went to Dubai and rode Coal Front when he won there. I rode Gidu when he went to Royal Ascot. I feel blessed to be able to ride them – [but] you’d have to say Life Is Good is the best and most talented.”
Life, it seems, is also pretty good right now for Amelia Green. “I guess this is the next best thing to being a jockey,” she agrees. “I wanted to be assistant trainer to Todd; I am assistant trainer to Todd and I travel for Todd.
“I love what I do – you can’t really complain when you get to travel with Group 1 horses around the world. I don’t know anyone that wouldn’t love to do that.”
• Visit the Todd Pletcher website
Saudi Cup: Christophe Soumillon booked for Japanese star Marche Lorraine
Life Is Good is new #1 on world rankings after Pegasus romp
What They're Thinking – Brian Kavanagh: Returning to the magical place that is the Curragh