rachael, bryony and others.

​I hope to live long enough to witness a female jockey win either the Cheltenham Gold Cup or the Grand National. I do not have any expectation to ever witness a female jockey win the Epsom Derby, Ascot Gold Cup or become champion jockey in either code. It will not happen, not in my lifetime, anyway. I sometimes think it will only happen when the male of the species become too heavy to make the weight for the flat and owners and trainers will be forced to employ female jockeys. The irony is, of course, that there are far more female jockeys riding on the flat than over jumps, many of whom have already proved on a day-to-day basis they are the equal of their male counterparts. Yet the glass ceiling remains unbroken for females on the flat, whereas in the more dangerous occupation of hurdle racing and steeplechasing it is not merely cracked but thoroughly smashed.
In Britain both Bryony Frost and the always underestimated Lizzie Kelly have won Grade 1 races, with the aforementioned Frost the darling of the sport after her magical win in the Ryanair at the Cheltenham Festival last season on her beloved Frodon. Travelling hopefully in Frost and Kelly’s wake are Page Fuller and Tabitha Worsley, two exceptional riders deserving of being involved in some of the top races this season. There are also many other aspiring females who are now riding winners on a regular basis.
In Ireland, and I stand to be corrected, there are only two female professional National Hunt jockeys, albeit one of them is already winning big races on a regular basis. While Katy O’Farrell, a winner on more than one occasion at the big Irish Festival meetings, rides winners here and there, getting on any horse she is offered, Rachael Blackmore has become the name in the sport, perhaps in the whole of sport in Ireland. Only last week she added the prestigious Kerry National to her already impressive c.v..
Yet Blackmore is 30-years-of-age. She is no spring chicken and was the first female professional jockey in Ireland since the early 1980’s when Maria Cullen gave it a go. Yes, she came late to the sport but unless someone gives the same opportunities to Katy O’Farrell there will be no Blackmore legacy for future female jockeys in Ireland to take advantage of. Blackmore will have come and gone long before the age Ruby Walsh reached before he shocked us with his retirement. She is as of this moment, when it comes to popularity and perhaps talent in the saddle, Ruby’s successor, not as champion because while Paul Townsend is fit and well he will be champion in Ireland till the day he has had enough. But she is the jockey everyone looks to, for youngsters to emulate and first-time backers to trust, and not only the first-time backers. The diehard professionals have absolute faith in her, too.
Horse racing, as I have said many times over the past decade, needs to put numbers to the boast that our sport is inclusive to all members of society, that men and women truly compete on equal terms. Because, as things stand, they do not compete on an even playing field. Blackmore has had it relatively easy to get to her elevated position in the sport. As has Bryony, if I am being honest. Even if neither set out with the ambition of being a professional jockey. For Blackmore it was a bold personal leap. Bryony had to be told by Paul Nicholls that she was too good to be an amateur and had to be instructed to turn professional.
Ask the girls riding on the flat how even the playing field is. If they win on a nicetwo-year-old, as certain as eggs are eggs, the next time it is more than likely a male will take over, especially if that horse is going for a more valuable race at one of main racecourses. Ask Katy O’Farrell or Lizzie Kelly how difficult it is to be given a chance on a top-class horse that might be favourite for a big race. Almost impossible will be the answer.
Ruby Walsh appreciates how good Blackmore and Frost are. I would think the greatest compliment Frost has ever received, apart from when her father said she was a hundred times a better rider than he ever was, was when reviewing one of the first races she won at Cheltenham on Frodon, he said, ‘she’s some rider, this girl’. And we should all appreciate Blackmore, Frost, Kelly and others but the owners, trainers and I suppose the jockeys agents, should ensure that the girls coming up behind them receive similar opportunities. This must not a passing golden age of female equality and success.
Can you imagine the media coverage after a Gold Cup or Grand National, especially the Grand National, if either race was to be won by a horse ridden by a female jockey? Bryony was on the front page of The Times after the Ryanair last season and virtually nobody outside of the sport knew what significance the race holds within jump racing. She was a female winning against the men. If the world was a fair place, if sport gave out deserving successes, if horse racing allowed us more than the occasional golden moment in the media spotlight, Rachael Blackmore or Bryony Frost would win The Gold Cup this season or more likely the Grand National. Perhaps if we all hope for it, it will happen. But then no one said to any of us on entering the world that fairness was given. As Ted Walsh is keen to point out, racing isn’t Hollywood or Disney World.