A WOMAN'S PLACE, ATTENDANCES, EQUINE INFLUENZA & CHESTER DRAW BIAS.

In the 'Another View column in the Racing Post today, Catherine Macrae makes the point, I think, that Cherie DeVaux becoming the first female to train a Kentucky Derby winner should not be seen as great news, even if it was an historic event in racing history, but a tide mark in the sand in the continuing domination of the male gender in our sport. As Macrae points out, it remains a rare event for a female trainer in this country to even have a runner in the Epsom Derby, with Jesse Harrington the only female to be represented in the last two decades. Female jockeys in the Epsom Derby are rarer still.

In Australia, the Melbourne Cup has in recent years had a female winning jockey and Rachel King won the latest running of that country's Derby. In the U.S., though, the days of female jockeys regularly riding in the major races has seemingly past. In Ireland, though there are a host of female apprentices winning races on the flat, no one has yet appeared to fill the void left by Rachael Blackmore's retirement, and in Britain it is the same since Bryony Frost made the move to France, with no females riding in the big races, let alone appearing in the top half of the jockeys table.

It cannot be said that female trainers and jockeys are not as good as their male equivalents if they are not given the same opportunities. Hollie Doyle did not fail when given the opportunity to ride quality horses in Group 1 races and continues to bang in the winners, yet when spare rides are on offer she seems a long way down the pecking order. I believe, along with Saffie Osborne, Jo Mason and Gina Mangan, she could easily hold her own against the men and without the data, which can only be achieved if female jockeys are given chances to win or fail in the top races, no one can argue against me on this. Buick, Murphy and Moore are great flat jockeys, with the latter perhaps one of the best of all-time, yet how often are they in the weighing room when classics and Group 1's are being run? They win the big races because they almost always have a ride.

In his column today, Richard Forristal reports that the attendance at Punchestown last Friday evening was 43,572, more than the combined total that attended the Guineas Meeting at Newmarket.

The meeting at Plumpton this weekend is in doubt due to a nearby outbreak of equine influenza in a non-thoroughbred. Equine influenza can be a killer of horses and if allowed to spread into the thoroughbred herd will almost certainly cause widespread disruption to the sport even with all racehorses required to have flu-jabs every six-months.

Trainers who withdraw horses on the day at Chester due to a high draw - any excuse seems acceptable to the stewards - should be lashed to the winning post and given several lashes of the pro-cush on the back of their legs. To prevent a crusade or petition for this to become a by-law, I propose that at Chester, and perhaps any racecourse with a pronounced draw bias, horses drawn on the outside in a double-digit field should be given a 2Ib weight allowance, with a 1Ib allowance given to stall numbers two or three-places lower. Draw bias is inevitable at Chester and trainers know this when they enter and as long as a horse if fit to run - and any horse drawn high that is withdrawn on the day should be subject to a prolonged inspection by a vet and then not allowed to run again for two-weeks irrespective if it is found lame or not - should take part. Life is not a bowl of cherries and sometimes you just have to suck-up the bad luck and get on with life.