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Female jockeys missing out on big race picks

Expert
30th October, 2013
6

Women might be taking over Melbourne’s racecourses for the Spring Racing Carnival, but on the track, they are struggling to gain a foothold.

Female jockeys have learnt when it’s time for the big races, the girls who work the racehorses the rest of the year have to make way for big-name male riders.

Hall of Fame trainer David Hayes, with 30 years of experience in the industry, is an advocate for female riders. But he questions whether the female riders can match it against the men.

“They’re terrific horse people and they ride plenty of winners, but in the big races, everyone goes for an edge,” he said.

“They probably don’t have the strength of the boys. That’s why in the Grand Slams, the women don’t play against the men.”

During the spring carnival, horse owners tend to take as few risks as possible and a stable affiliation with a jockey isn’t enough.

“They always want the hottest in-form rider. At the moment, the top riders in Australia are men,” Hayes said.

One of Hayes’ stable jockeys, apprentice Kayla Nisbet, 19, is more optimistic about the future.

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Nisbet is one of 32 apprentice jockeys who have been granted permits by Racing Victoria. Of those, 14 are female.

In the senior ranks, just 16 of 145 jockeys are female.

Racing is in transition, Nisbet said, with a rise in the number of female apprentices.

“We’re just starting to come through now,” she said.

“Girls tend to be naturally lighter than the boys so I think in 10 years or so, we might probably outnumber the boys. They’re going to have to become more accepting of us.”

One of the big inspirations for young female apprentices is leading female jockey Michelle Payne.

Payne is the only Victorian-based female rider to have achieved Group 1 success. She claimed her first Group 1 in the 2009 Toorak Handicap on Allez Wonder.

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Payne then went on to win Group 1s in the AJC Sires Produce Stakes, Thousand Guineas and Tiara Stakes, all aboard the recently retired Yosei.

As the youngest of eight children in her family to become a jockey, Payne finds it a big change to be the one being looked up to and asked for advice.

Although she has had a highly decorated career, Payne has gone through the hardships of riding winners in the provincials and then losing the rides when the horses come to Melbourne.

She said it was important to not get hung up about it, because it happened to all riders as they came through the ranks.

“Owners put a lot of money into their horses so if they don’t want a female jockey, that’s fair enough,” she said.

“I just think it’s a bit sad that if you have a connection with a horse and they’re not willing to try it.”

Payne encouraged girls to look beyond the gender battle, saying that in the end, “if you have some ability, you get the opportunity”.

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“They think we’re the weaker sex and we are not strong enough in the finish. If you look at Glen Boss, he’s one of the leading riders and he’s not a strong whip rider but he gets a horse to go as fast as it can go through his way of riding,” she said.

“I think that’s a big thing. Seeing him as a leading rider, I think if you compare females to him, it’s similar because at the end of the day if you get a horse to go as fast as it can go, that’s what you’re aiming for.”

Payne said there were some promising young female riders coming through.

“There’s the obvious ones in Kayla Nisbet and Katelyn Mallyon who are doing really well. Jackie Berriman too. She’s got a lot of ability,” she said.

This article was first published by Herald Sun on October 29.

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