ONLY ONE PLACE TO START & SHANE FOLEY GETS 11-DAYS .

It was always what I wanted to witness. It may have taken over fifty-years for it to happen, and I watched on t.v. that first female jockeys race at Kempton, but when it arrived it was far more joyous than I could ever imagine.

If the script for the 250th running of the St. Leger was to be for a film, the editor  would have been ripped-up as too ridiculous, too 'National Velvet' to be considered both likely or believeable. The 250th running, royal patronage and Lesley Garrett, no less, singing the National Anthem, it was history enough. For the race to go down in racing history - history used in its correct context - was too much for any viewer to expect. Yet fate accepted the script in its entirety, allowing Saffie Osborne to remove yet another of the glass ceilings in the sport. The first female jockey to win a British classic; a distinction that can never be taken away from her. And, given her sense of humour, perhaps typical of the girl, we nearly had a National Velvet denoument to the race when officials allowed Saffie to set off for the weighing room, where she is most used to weighing-in after a race, rather than the scales on the podium. She ran back as she was told there is a time limit for a jockey to weigh in, with disqualification, as was the climax to 'National Velvet', a distinct possibility.

On the morning of the race, Saffie only real ambition was to keep the ride on Highwayman if he should go to Australia for the Melbourne Cup. After the race her hopes of riding him at Flemington seemed diminished. 'I think he might be too high in the weights now but I don't care because what that horse has just done for my career. I'd never met him before but I'll love him forever.' Can you imagine a male jockey saying that after a race? It is why I believe this sport, especially the flat, needs to embrace female jockeys, for owners and trainers to give them more prominant rides, for their faces to be seen at all the major summer festivals. They should not be favoured, of course, or put on a better class of horse just because they are female. In racing, everything has to be earned. But if you are telling me that not one of the female apprentices in Britain and Ireland have the same potential as Saffie displayed when she was an apprentice, then you must be blind and you must be wrong. There must be room at the top echelon for more than one female jockey at a time. We may have had Blackmore and Frost in the top echelon in National Hunt at the same time but the dynamic in the weighing was that two was one too many. Hayley was alone in the top sphere for most of her career, then Hollie came along as the lone female, and hopefully she can re-establish herself when she has recovered from her injury. Saffie is the best female jockey in Europe and with her smile and her sense of humour she is a wonderful asset when it comes to marketing the sport over the next few years. Owners and trainers must now step-up and for the good of the sport  ensure her name remain relevant when the big races come round. The next glass ceiling in need of smashing is the first female to win the Epsom Derby. Because of yesterday, that is now more achievable.

Shane Foley barged his way to victory in the Irish Champion Stakes, receiving an eleven-day ban and 10% of 700,000- euros. Firstly, though, I must prove myself a hypocrite once again. I forever say, usually in relation to Constitution Hill, that a horse does not know if he is running in a seller or a classic. It means nothing to the horse. Yet is it not a kick in the teeth to all those owners who would sell a much-loved child to own a Derby winner to use a Derby winner as a pacemaker? Lambourn, we must assume, cares not a jot as long as when he arrives home he is fed and watered. It peeves me, though.  Also, another example of an O'Brien horse not running on its merits.

Indeed, Lambourn was the most abused by the passage of Hotazhell through the race, being the last of several to be impeded as Foley bumped one horse, that bumped another and so on. This win at all costs and apologise later attitude that perhaps has always been prevalent amongst jockeys needs to be dealt with by stewards in a more severe way than merely dolling out suspension to the jockey. The owner benefitted from the improper way in which Foley rode, as did the trainer. Also, can anyone put their hand on their heart and say that the incident caused by James Doyle at Doncaster was 11-days more palatable than the ride by Foley? Doyle did not even get a caution for putting a fellow rider in danger. Foley gets 11-days for bumping and boring that did not result in a horse being on its knees at racing pace. The careless and dangerous riding rules need to be reassessed and, in my opinion, revised.