the slow motion-rise of the female.

​There is little or no doubt that the star of the female professional flat jockey is on the rise. It could be argued that the position held by female jockeys in the sport is about right if you take into account the year from which they started out from. After all, the first race on the flat for female riders was only in 1972, May 6th, to be accurate, at Kempton Park and won by Meriel Tufnell on Scorched Earth. May 6th, 1972, whether misogynists like it or not will forever be an historic date in British horse racing. More easily remembered than December 29th 1975 when the Sex Discrimination Act came into force in this country, the day that had the Jockey Club in a tizzy until they capitulated, realised politicians had them over a barrel, swallowed their united chauvinistic tendencies and fears of a marketing disaster and allowed the ‘weaker sex’ to ride under National Hunt rules. Bizarrely, though perfectly in keeping with the nonsensical thinking that could come from the Jockey Club at the time, they refused to allow stable girls working in flat yards to ride in races, though less fit, arguably, less experienced, female riders could ride over fences and hurdles.
Though providing good publicity for horse racing, it was a slow burn for female jockeys. Linda Goodwill won the first mixed-gender amateur race on the flat in 1974. Lorna Vincent became the first professional jump jockey to win against professionals in 1978 at Devon & Exeter (now just Exeter, though still many miles, a lot of them uphill, from Exeter city centre), and in the same year, 14th September, Karen Wiltshire made flat racing history when winning on The Goldstone. The date should be commemorated, in my opinion, as it was the day when everything changed for female professional flat jockeys. It was no more, no less, than a Moon Landings moment for the sport. On the 14th September, on a racecourse somewhere in Britain, there should be a race to commemorate Karen Wiltshire’s dogged determination to prove the doubters, the cynics, the misogynists, wrong. The female could ride winners on the flat!
Of course, Karen Wiltshire’s achievement should have provided boundless opportunity for the sport to promote itself. She had many offers to do interviews, especially with female magazine, but had to turn them down as she was advised ‘that the Jockey Club would not like it’. How times change; now the B.H.A. might argue that Holly Doyle doesn’t do enough interviews with the non-sporting media.
But is the female jockey at its appropriate position within the sport. After-all, the breakthrough moment for professional female jockeys was 45-years ago and though Hayley Turner made her mark in the sport twenty-years ago and remains one of the sport’s most popular jockeys, only Holly Doyle is being given the opportunities, and not so many if you tot the numbers up, to compete and win Group 1’s and classic races.
Approximately (I am using data published in the Racing Post which does not go down below 3-winners) female jockeys rode 484 winners between them in 2022. Holly Doyle rode, to be second in the list behind William Buick, 151-winners, with Saffie Osborne (the next female star of the weighing room) and Joanna Mason (as good as any professional, in my humble opinion) tying for second on a creditable 46-winners. Hayley Turner was next on 37-winners.
It is disappointing to learn that the next most-winning female jockey on the list, Grace McEntee, on 24-winners, has lost faith her career will progress in this country, even with her father being a trainer, and has relocated to the U.S.
Nicola Currie, one of the most under-used, male or female, jockeys rode only 17-winners from 225 rides, all her winners coming during the ridiculous short period in which the championship is determined.
In Ireland, the wheel of fortune continues to turn in favour of the female professional jockey, though in comparison to Rachel Blackmore’s rise to super-stardom over jumps the change of direction can only be described as slow motion. Siobhan Rutledge did though finish in joint 25th position in the Irish championship table, higher than Osborne and Mason achieved in Great Britain, to be fair, riding 13-winners. And though a good and improving number of female apprentices rode winners in Ireland last season only Amy Jo Hayes, with 7-winners, achieved enough to be mentioned in despatches (she was 31st in the table of winning jockeys).
More than at any time in the history of racing in Britain and Ireland, female participation is desperately needed. More people of either gender are needed to work in the sport. It’s a great life for anyone unafraid of hard grafting, with rewards that can come both financially and spiritually. Ireland must work harder to uncover their own Holly Doyle, to get the Irish glass ceiling smashed and forgotten about, to demonstrate that racing is truly a mixed gender culture and that the female has the same opportunities to reached the top as her male counterparts.
Holly Doyle, as good and hard-working as she is, makes the picture in Britain rosier than it actually is. She rode a quarter of all the winners ridden by her female colleagues last season. If you add the totals of Saffie Osborne and Joanna Mason to Holly’s total it comprises half of all the winners ridden by female jockeys.
I return to my old and favourite chestnut of suggesting the sport could only benefit from a race, with a six-figure prize-fund (if possible, in its first year) restricted to professional female jockeys (excluding those who claim more than 3Ibs). Female jockeys all around the world need a ‘Derby’ of their own, a race the top females are allowed the chance to ride a better class of horse than they usually get to ride. If provided with a date in the calendar between festivals, on one of those quiet Saturdays or even to brighten a dull Sunday, such a race would shine a spotlight on the sport and an opportunity for publicity in media outlets that normally would not feature horse racing. I rest my case. For now.