International Women’s Day is the official appointed day on which to celebrate women’s achievements. But actually, I’d argue that the first day of the Cheltenham Festival is as good a day as any to celebrate women in racing; and there are lots of them.
Women are making their names in racing, on an equal playing field with men, whether it’s International Women’s Day or Christmas Day; a Friday or a Tuesday.
Go to any racing yard in the country and it’s likely that many of the staff will be female. It’s a cliché, but girls like ponies, and over half of all stable staff jobs in the UK are filled by women. But historically, racing has very much been a man’s world. As jumps trainer Jessica Harrington says in a new film Jump Girls, ‘When I started training it was very much a man’s world.’ That was in the 1980s. Amongst the jumps trainers, the likes of Henrietta Knight, Venetia Williams, and Jenny Pitman are almost household names. There are plenty more young female trainers coming through the ranks, although men do still dominate.
When it comes to jockeys, Bryony Frost is the shining star of the current crop of female jump jockeys. She’s chatty, young, media-friendly, and a jolly good rider. She has three rides booked at the Cheltenham Festival this week, as well having ridden earlier today.
But Bryony isn’t the only female jump jockey out there. Irish jockey Rachael Blackmore had three rides at Cheltenham today – one of which she won – and she's booked to ride in all but one of tomorrow’s races. Chris Cook of the Guardian says that this must be a record for any female rider at one festival meeting; he’s almost certainly right. Other female jockeys will be riding too; Lizzie Kelly, Harriet Tucker and Bridget Andrews all have rides, and there are a number of ladies riding in the amateur races.
With the debate raging over transgender women competing in women’s athletics competitions, here’s a sport where everyone – no matter their gender – competes on a level playing field.
Naysayers will point out that it is the horse ‘doing the running’, not the person. But jockeys need to be strong and fit; there’s no two ways about it. Interviewed for the Jump Girls film, jockey Katie O’Farrell talks of competing against male jockeys ‘I’ve got to be fitter. I’ve got to be stronger. I’ve got to be better, just to be on par’.
Ted Walsh – former champion amateur jockey himself, and father of jockeys Ruby (currently Cheltenham Festival’s most successful jockey) and Katie Walsh, who herself had three Cheltenham Festival wins, has a different angle on things. ‘Women are stronger people than men mentally. Men arse-lick a bit, women don't. The real strong women say: “Go fuck yourself!”.’
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So it’s not just brawn versus brawn. ‘You don’t have to be strong to win races. You just have to be a bloody good rider’, says Jessica Harrington. Josephine Gordon is a flat (rather than a jump) jockey, but she’s told me the same thing: ‘Riding isn’t just about strength’.
Both Blackmore and Frost have worked their way up through the ranks; working in racing yards and riding in pony races and point to points. Blackmore, who’s based in Ireland, became the first women to be win the Conditional Riders championship, in 2015. As she said today, as a statue of her was unveiled at Cheltenham: 'When we walk out of the weighing room during the Cheltenham Festival, we all walk out shoulder to shoulder to compete as equals, regardless of which changing room we used.'
Women are increasingly involved in all aspects of racing; breeding, owning, pre-training, as vets – and promoting the sport to the wider public. Clare Balding famously made her name as a racing presenter. Now the likes of Francesca Cumani and Alice Plunkett are some of the faces of racing’s TV coverage.
As far as I’m aware, none of this can be said for any other mainstream sport out there. Horse racing is, after all, the second biggest spectator sport in the country, and last year’s Festival saw a record attendance of over 250,000 – with millions watching on ITV. Men and women watch racing together, work in racing together, and compete against one another. That’s something to be celebrated.