Apprentice Quast keeps on her quest

Breaking a long losing streak felt so good that Caroline Quast thought she’d win another one.

The 32-year-old apprentice rider snapped a 73-race drought by winning last Friday at Ellis Park aboard 24-1 shot Bold Force, then came right back to win with her very next mount when Dulce de Leche scored Saturday at 17-1 at the western Kentucky track. A $2 win parlay was worth $915.

“I was surprised, but yes, it was awesome,” said Quast, who began riding show horses at age 5 in her native Germany.

Quast has traveled the world since leaving Germany at 17, living in New Zealand, London, and all over the United States. Always enamored with horses, she finally got her race-riding career under way in October 2015 at Finger Lakes in upstate New York, winning for the first time with her 11th mount.

She rode last winter at Laurel Park – where on Nov. 27 she had her most recent winner prior to last weekend – and Charles Town before moving in late March to Lexington, Ky., where she has been trying to break in with Kentucky horsemen. She spends most mornings at the Thoroughbred training center on the north end of town, exercising horses for various trainers while also making her rounds in trying to attract mounts.

Quast is currently working without an agent but said she is “not opposed to having one.” She is scheduled to lose her apprenticeship on the one-year anniversary of her fifth career win, which came last September.