Wed 27th Aug 2003

Staff Profile - Jane Hedley

Born and bred in the Scottish Borders, from a family who breed Scottish Blackface Sheep, Jane's early contact with racing came through hunting and point-to-pointing. She competed for around 4 seasons alongside taking her Bsc (Hons) Degree course in Agriculture at Edinburgh University, and approximately 50 rides yielded 3 winners.

This was followed by a 2 year spell working in trainers' yards, including Henrietta Knight's (where Jane was lucky enough to have Best Mate and Chives in her care), Philip Hobbs', Alan King's, John Hills' and Kevin Prendergast's in Ireland. Then she went to Newmarket for her first office job as a recruitment agent, followed by a summer with Newmarket Racecourse.

Jane Hedley started with Shadwell in August 2002, taking over from Briony Norris in Marketing and Nominations. Her duties (after riding out for William Haggas in Newmarket) include following the progress of all the stallions' progeny through the sales ring and on the racecourse, preparing adverts based on successes and dealing with enquiries from mare owners. She is also responsible for all the promotional advertising, sponsored racedays, production of the annual brochure and maintenance of the web-site.

Attendance at most of the major sales and race meetings is an important and enjoyable part of the job. Another task is taking visitors round the stud. Jane says "It really is the most fantastic place, but it's easy to take it for granted when you live with it every day."

Jane joined Shadwell just after the sad loss of NASHWAN and UNFUWAIN, but this meant that SAKHEE, ACT ONE and herself are all new together. "It's exciting to be able to follow their careers right from the very beginning. We've also got the first 2-year-old runners by MUJAHID to look forward to next year."