times they are a changing.

​For perhaps the first time in racing history the question ‘Who will be the leading female flat jockey this season? has no obvious answer. In years gone by the answer would be without a doubt Hayley Turner or more recently most definitely Josephine Gordon. Yet it is perfectly possible for neither of them to take the crown this season. While Rachael Blackmore continues to set the pace over the jumps in Ireland, over here, on the flat, at least, the battle is too close to call.
Realistically there are five women who can finish the season as leading female jockey. As of Aug 27th, Hayley Turner and Nicola Currie are tied on 28 winners, with Hollie Doyle hot on their heels with 26. Not out of it are Rachel Richardson and Josephine Gordon on 20.
I hope those with a better understanding of race-riding agree with me but I am convinced Hayley is riding better now than even when she was winning those Group races and writing her name into the annals of racing history. Nicola Currie is chasing the apprentice title, though she is slipping further and further behind Jason Watson and Rossa Ryan who seem to have that skirmish to themselves. She has the benefit of having Richard Hughes in her corner, both for winners and advice. I doubt if Richard Hughes suffers fools gladly and he must rate her as a rider to be continuing to supply her with fancied rides. The problem of course is that he is a fair and just man and has other apprentices in his stable to supply with rides.
If I had to pick one of the five to be champion lady rider this year I would plump for Hollie Doyle who I believe is under rated and should be riding in every big handicap. Archie Watson seems to grow ever more confidant in her abilities as he puts her on a good number of his better two-year-olds, always a sign that a trainer has faith in a rider. She may be tiny but she is a real pocket-rocket in the saddle and with luck and greater experience she can only get better.
At the beginning of the season I doubt if anyone would have given Rachel Richardson a chance in the title race and everyone would have thought Josephine Gordon an absolute shoe-in to not only win the title but to put in a stout effort in the whole damn shooting match that is the jockeys’ championship. Although she is now beginning to get a few winners, overall it hasn’t happened for her this season. She had an injury at a bad time but then so did Hollie Doyle and with Hugo Palmer behind her there may be a host of winners waiting for her between now and seasons end. Personally, I think being attached to a big stable is not really helping her at the moment. She too often finds herself riding one Hugo Palmer horse up north when she might be riding for other trainers at the better meetings. How many winners she has forfeited staying loyal to her boss only she can know and how she squares the circle is for her and her agent to decide, though as things stand Hayley’s prediction that she would be bettering all her achievements in the years to come seems rather wide of the mark.
In finally ridding herself of her claim, Rachel Richardson achieved something of great significance as so few females ride out their claim. Tim Easterby, who I wouldn’t thought is the easiest of task-masters, should be congratulated for supporting Richardson from 7lb claimer to fully fledged professional jockey.
There are more highly talented and motivated apprentices, male and female, riding at the moment than at any time in my love-affair with the sport, with a great number of girls making their names. Not all of them will ride out their claim or make their name as a professional but sooner or later one of their number will get the opportunities required to ride in and win the top-end races that allow the sport to jump from the back pages to the front pages of daily newspapers, which is exactly what horse racing needs right now in order to promote itself to the fifty-per-cent of the world that are female.