DIVERSITY.

​It is a nice word, diversity, isn’t it? It means, and I quote my very old Cassell’s Concise English, ‘plea by a prisoner that he is not the person charged’. I didn’t know that. I suspect it is what footballers scream at the referee when he or she is about to be booked for a foul committed by a team-mate. A team-mate, you will notice, who rarely fronts-up to the offence.
Of course, when a Diversity Committee reports on the subject it is women they are talking about, or the lack of them in our sport, apparently. Incidentally, having no knowledge of the composition of the Diversity Committee I did think it would be ironic or perverse if it failed its own diversity criteria. Not enough cross-dressing non-orthodox Christians or transgender little people. I was going to say midget. Then I thought dwarf might be more politically correct. Now I wish I had not allowed my malfunctioning brain take me down this route. Anyway, diversity possesses strands of possibility that can easily lead to nonsense, as I have just proved.
I have no doubt their conclusions are correct, though during my lifetime women have successfully and to positive effect infiltrated into most corners of the racing industry. Should more be done? My answer to that is somewhere between perhaps and definitely.
Prejudice must be removed from all sections of the sport. But diversity should not be allowed to dictate decisions that could be bad for the sport. When people are interviewed for any job in racing from racecourse management, private trainer, head lad, managing director of any section of the industry, the best applicant should be employed, not the best female applicant. To do otherwise is to push standards and efficiency sideways and not upwards.
I have made the following comment many times in the short period I have written for this website, and previously I have had many letters published in the Racing Post to the same effect. When it comes to female jockeys, especially on the flat, there is every bit of a glass ceiling as there is in the boardrooms of big business and until one of the top trainers has the balls to give a female jockey a chance in Group and classic races the glass will never be cracked let alone shattered. I know Josephine Gordon is described occasionally as Hugo Palmer’s stable jockey but in effect she is no better off than the third or fourth in line at other big yards. When it comes to the important races James Doyle and others are above her in the pecking order. I am sure Hugo Palmer explained the situation when Gordon joined up with his stable but it is the best illustration available to me to prove the existence of the glass ceiling.
Over jumps the situation is slightly healthier with Rachael Blackmore in Ireland leading the jockeys table at present and with Briony Frost everyone’s sweetheart in this country. And as Bridget Andrews proved at Cheltenham last season, if given horses with winning chances female jockeys have the requisite skill to get them first past the post.
No legislation will persuade a trainer to put up Gordon, Turner, Doyle or Currie when Moore, Dettori, Doyle or Buick are available, and again you have to ask if any of the aforementioned female riders are at the same level as the aforementioned male jockeys? Yet if they are not given the opportunity to prove themselves how will we every know? And as Charles Bishop proved at Royal Ascot, there are just as many male jockeys who would appreciate the opportunity to prove themselves as female.
But with all due respect to Charles Bishop and his equally underrated colleagues, nothing would give the sport of flat racing better publicity than if Gordon, Turner, Doyle or Currie were to win a classic or Group 1. The problem is of course that the female rider is not ever even considered when the classics come around, indeed they must consider themselves lucky to get on a horse with a decent chance in one of the heritage handicaps. How many females jockeys had a ride in the Northumberland Plate this season? How many will take part in the Ebor?
Flat racing in particular, but National Hunt also, would benefit enormously for greater female participation at the top end of the sport. The 4lb allowance in France is obviously discriminatory and downright unfair to the male jockeys. The right road is greater opportunity. There needs to be a signature race for professional female jockeys at somewhere like Glorious Goodwood or Champions Day at Ascot. A race worth in excess of £100,00. The biggest race of its kind in the world, attracting the best female riders from around the world. There should also be more races in the calendar restricted to female riders. The Carlisle all female jockey evening proves how popular such races would be.
Diversity amongst jockeys will stumble against the prejudice of the top owners and trainers without the balls to suggest that it might be good for the sport if the best female riders were given an opportunity to prove their worth. This is where the problem lies and the Diversity Committee should not be shy in saying so.