Comignaghi looking to build on big milestone
Leading South Island jockey Tina Comignaghi brought up her 500th career win at Riccarton last Saturday, and she is hoping to add to her tally when she heads to Wingatui on Friday.
“It was great. I have been waiting on it for a while, so it was good to get it,” said Comignaghi, who brought up the milestone aboard the Sophie Hargreaves and Naomi Murfitt-trained Henry Thomas (NZ) (Ocean Park).
Comignaghi quickly added to her tally when victorious aboard the Lance Robinson-trained Iron Hawk (Written Tycoon), who she thinks has a bright future.
“He is a very talented horse, but he is still a bit green and mentally he probably needs to grow up a bit, but he has plenty of ability, so I think he will go places,” she said.
That win brought her season tally to 53, placing her sixth in the New Zealand Jockeys’ Premiership, and the clear leading South Island rider.
While accustomed to life in the saddle, having grown up riding horses in her homeland of Argentina, racing was the furthest thing from her mind until she came to New Zealand on a working holiday visa and the seed was planted in her mind by her employers John and Karen Parsons to pursue a career as a jockey.
“I grew up around horses and I learned to ride before I could walk. I was working horses at the farm and then I got into showjumping and dressage,” Comignaghi said.
“I travelled to New Zealand for a working holiday and I found myself in racing. I started working for John and Karen Parsons and it’s because of them that I ended signing up to be an apprentice jockey. I did my apprenticeship with them and I am still riding trackwork for them, I haven’t gone far.”
Comignaghi made a pleasing start to her career, but a broken arm placed her on the sideline for several years as she had a series of frustrating surgeries that nearly put an end to her riding ambitions.
“I started riding and I was going pretty well but I only rode for like three months and then I broke my arm,” she said. “I had six surgeries on it over five years. I wasn’t going to come back riding, the surgeon said to just go and do something else because my arm wasn’t going to hold up. But I started riding trackwork and I thought I would start riding at the races, so I started again.”
Comignaghi is pleased she persevered, with the 36-year-old now one of the leading jockeys in the country, with her career particularly taking off in the last five years, which she puts down to her partnership with riding agent Eddie Brooks.
“It has been really good,” she said. “The big difference was having Eddie Brooks doing my rides, if it wasn’t for Eddie I probably wouldn’t be riding still. He is like family and he is always encouraging me and gives me a lot of confidence. He has been really good. He is not only my manager, but a mentor.”
Of her 501 wins, 20 of those have been at Group or Listed level, with Comignaghi singling out her two Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) victories aboard Aljay (NZ) (Rock 'n' Pop) (2022) and Bozo (NZ) (Satono Aladdin) (2025) for trainer Kevin Myers as her two biggest highlights.
“The New Zealand Cup has to be my biggest highlight, both of them with Kevin’s horses,” she said. “He has been great to me and it was really good to win those for him.”
Off the back of her milestone success, Comignaghi is now looking forward to heading to Wingatui on Friday where she will ride half a dozen horses, including race favourite Sako (NZ) (Ardrossan) in the Otago Engineering (1200m) for Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh.
