IPOH:  June 21, 2012

Japanese female jockey Akane Yamamoto, who recently spent a year riding in Korea, will make make her Malaysian debut at the one-day meeting here on Saturday.

The 28-year-old, who has ridden more than 300 winners, also spent more than a year honing her skill in New Zealand in 2008 and 2009 and rode two winners there.

Yamamoto has been nominated on four horses on Saturday: TRUE FRIENDSHIP (Race 3), MOVING FORWARD (Race 5), MEDIA MOGUL (Race 7) and ACE AMIGO (Race 13).

Second in a family of three girls, Yamamoto learnt to ride at the age of 10 and on leaving school at 18, spent two years at the apprentice school and joined the Farstor Farm for one year to learn about horses and riding.

She then joined the stables of trainer Ibaragi Haraguchi at Nagoya in 2005 and turned full-fledged one and a half years later.

She rode a winner on her first day at the races. "I had four rides that afternoon and was successful with SONG FOR YOU," she said in Ipoh.

In New Zealand, she spent a year working horses before making her race debut and scored on AMBAARUN on her second day of race riding.

After seven years in the saddle, Yamamoto is today one of the top female jockeys in her country. She shared the 2010 NAR Grand Prix award for being the best female jockey with Mai Beppu.