Jorja’s a winner not once – but twice!

Young New South Wales horsewoman Jorja Rusten might have taken longer than she liked to get her first harness racing winner as a driver – but getting the second was easy!

Frustratingly close to getting the first win monkey off her back on numerous occasions, Rusten broke through on her dad Darryle’s maiden pacer Jacky’s Hat (Maffioso) at her Parkes home track last month (Feb 28).

It took a tough death-seat performance by Jacky’s Hat, but Rusten didn’t panic, and the five-year-old mare found plenty for her in the run to the line to the cheers of the crowd.

“I think it was mainly my mum and my sister Laura that you could hear, but everyone was pretty excited for me,” Rusten said.

Watch the replay here: https://www.harness.au/racing/2025-03-23/dubbo/D/meeting

“It was quite a feeling that I don’t know how to describe.  You always plan everything and think you know how it’ll feel, but it was pretty surreal, really.  It was so exciting, but then when I pulled up, I couldn’t quite believe it…did I actually win it?!” she joked.

“Dad wasn’t there for my first win, he was at work, but when he got home we had a few drinks and watched the replay about 100 times!”

And it was just four starts later that Rusten got win number two in the bag, again for her dad, with another Maffioso-sired mare, Erminnnie Quince, at Dubbo yesterday (Mar 23).

“I was actually confident with her with the barrier draw and how she was going.  Dad told me just to drive her out and if you hit the lead don’t give it up! And that was how it worked out,” Rusten said.

Results and replays of Dubbo here: https://www.harness.au/racing/2025-02-28/parkes/N/meeting/8

The 19-year-old is a fourth-generation harness racing participant, following her dad, her grandfather Harold Rusten and her great grandfather Mark Fanning into the sport.

Her two sisters are also drivers – 21-year-old Laura, who is also lives at Parkes, and 23-year-old Tiarne, who now works on a cattle station at King Island, and raced the family’s pacer Runpoprun during the island’s recent summer racing season.

“The colors I wear (purple with gold sashes and sleeves) are actually the ones my nanna (Brenda Moore) had when she was racing, so that’s pretty special,” Jorja said.

Jorja works alongside her dad with their team of seven racehorses and a number of breakers he educates each season.

In addition, she is due to complete studies on Equine Artificial Insemination later this year.

“I want to keep racing and training trotters because I just absolutely love it – it’s so much fun and I love working with the breakers as well.  But hopefully once I’ve finished my studies, I can get some experience in the breeding industry with the AI work, and I’d love to think I can branch out on my own in that field one day,” she said.

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink