My names Maija Vance I’m 24 and I was born in Sweden where my mum is from and she represented Sweden as a jockey in Macau and that's where she met my dad Bob Vance who was over there riding for New Zealand at the time so as you can see it was hard for me not to get the jockey bug with both my parents reaching the highest success at group one level, when I was as early as 12 I was riding track work ,I started my jockey apprenticeship and went on to have my first race ride when I was 17.After a month of race riding i notched up my first winner aboard Black Fox which was over the prestigious Auckland cup carnival and this memory sits so high in my highlights of my career to have my family there on my favorite and home track, Black Fox is a special horse to me so early in my career we combined to win over a 100k in prize money together.

After a successful start to my apprenticeship I was given the unique opportunity to ride in the highest level in two group one races as an apprentice in which I placed in both. Just after my second year as a apprentice I’d reached around the 100 winner mark and i was offered an enticing apprenticeship across the Tasman in Queensland at racing headquarters in Brisbane itself at eagle farm. On my first day riding in Brisbane I was fortunate enough to guide home a long shot outside which surprised and got the attention quickly of the Brisbane racing scene. Not everything was smooth sailing in Brisbane with an enforced 4 month break on the sidelines after a horse reared and slipped landing on top of me in which i was left with a badly broken ankle. Overall i had good success whilst in Queensland with favorite highlight in particular winning a magic millions race aboard Commondare on a very prestigious race day where trainers, horses & jockeys come from all over the world to compete.