‘It breaks your heart but I think I’ve hit a brick wall in this country’ - meet the Royal Ascot-winning rider faced with a harsh reality
Lewis Porteous talks to Laura Pearson, a Group 3-winning jockey with her sights set on a fresh start
It has been more than five weeks since Laura Pearson landed the biggest success of her riding career aboard Sparks Fly in the Group 3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes on Derby day, yet in that time she has had barely a dozen opportunities to add to her first winner of the year.
Pearson is one of only four female riders to have had a winner at Royal Ascot, but she was absent from all five days of this year's meeting, and her services in the saddle have been required at only three meetings this month.
The dearth of opportunities, especially after producing one of the rides of the season when going it alone along the inside rail to win on Sparks Fly at Epsom, makes little sense, but to her credit the 25-year-old remains upbeat.
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