Top jockey’s sex attack on woman rider
Sportsman known to millions ‘pounced with Jockey Club officials present’
A FEMALE rider has told how a jockey pinned her to a wall saying, “You know you want it.” Gay Kelleway, 53, said Jockey Club officials were yards away when the household name struck.
A TOP female jockey has told of a terrifying ordeal when a famous rider pushed himself on her in a changing room.
Gay Kelleway claimed the rider, known to millions of punters, pinned her against the wall and said, “You know you want it,” in the presence of Jockey Club officials.
It is one of a string of shocking stories she has told the Mirror.
They include a naked male rider approaching her in a sauna, unsolicited night-time hotel visits from two trainers, and Gay feeling she would be “safer” travelling to races in the horse box, rather than accept lifts and face unwanted advances.
And Gay, 53, whose career spans more than three decades, warned that tragic consequences lie ahead for aspiring female jockeys and stable staff if the perpetrators are not driven out of racing for good.
Lifting the lid on a culture of sexual harassment and bullying, she said: “What I went through would be enough to push someone, especially fragile girls, to suicide.
“I got harassed so much, people have no idea what sort of a tough time I had. It was horrible.
“I just wished they would leave me alone. All I wanted was to do my job to the best of my ability.”
The daughter of top National Hunt jockey Paul Kelleway, Gay was destined to spend her life working with horses.
She made history by becoming the first – and still only – woman to ride a winner at Royal Ascot when Sprowston Boy landed the Queen Alexandra Stakes in 1987.
Gay rode her first winner at 17 and was leading professional female rider three years in a row. But her success over male colleagues triggered sexist mocking.
She said: “They used to take the mickey a lot. Every time I beat a [male] jockey, especially a top one, the response was the same: ‘Ah, you got beaten by a girl.’ It was unheard of, and they didn’t like it.”
But there was a more sinister response to Gay’s “intrusion” into the testosterone-fuelled atmosphere of the weighing room.
She became a target for physical abuse, including the sexually motivated assault by a “senior jockey” yards from officials from the Jockey Club, which ceded control of racing to the now British Horseracing Authority in 1993. Recalling her ordeal, at a time when female riders did not have a designated changing room, Gay said: “I’ll never forget it, I was getting changed.
“I was in the changing room at Leicester and a senior jockey walked in and pinned me up against the wall. There were stewards around.
“[He said] ‘Come on, Gay, come on, you know you want it.’ I said, ‘No, I don’t’. I said, ‘I’ll scream.’
“[He said] ‘No one will hear you.’ I kneed him in the groin. He left then.” Recounting another episode, Gay went on: “I used to go and use a top jockey’s sauna.
“My dad arranged it and I was quite friendly with his girlfriend. I drove over to the house and I was sat in there with my swimming
costume on and he walked in, stark naked, trying to shock me. I promptly left.”
Even travel to the races put her at risk of unwanted advances. “I used to get lifts in cars,” said Gay, who has been with partner AnneSophie for the past six years.
“There’s a trainer now, a top trainer. He was an assistant at the time. I said to my dad, ‘I’d rather go with the horse in the horse box.’ I knew I’d be safe.
“I was young then. I was a kid. I never said anything because no one believed you. ‘You must have provoked them’ – that’s what you got.” The harassment did not stop when Gay retired from riding to set out as a trainer in Newmarket in 1991. She said: “I had started training and I was staying in a hotel at Doncaster. I had two trainers knocking on my door, and I had a very respected top trainer calling me.
“I used to stay at hotels miles away because I got so much harassment.”
Her allegations come in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein sex-abuse claims scandal and as allegations of sexual improprieties emerge at Westminster. Despite accounting for 70% of Britain’s 6,000 stable staff – low-paid jobs with long hours – women have struggled to make an impact in the top echelons of a sport which contributes £3.5billion to the UK economy per year.
They were allowed to hold training licences only after High Court action in 1966.
While Jenny Pitman, Venetia Williams, Sue Smith and Lucinda Russell have saddled the Grand National victor in the race’s 178 years, no female handler has captured the Derby.
And 30 years on from Sprowston Boy’s Royal Ascot triumph, only one woman, Hayley Turner, has ridden the outright winner of a Group 1 Flat race in Britain.
As a trainer, Gay has won numerous big races including the Three-Year-Old Sprint All-Weather Championship at Lingfield Park in 2015 with Lightscameraction.
She insists while progress has been made during her career, sexual bullying still goes on.
Gay said: “I’ve known incidents with head lads harassing girls, grooms, in the yard. They’ve had to be sacked. I’ve had to ask a lad to leave for harassing a girl.”
She urged women affected by harassment or bullying to notify the British Horseracing Authority or police, and said: “Any trainer that tries it on with a groom or a young girl, they should be reported.
“If they get approached by a trainer, ‘a ride for a ride’, tell them to sod off and go somewhere else.”
Gay added: “I haven’t been paid to do this interview. I’m saying it because it’s true, it’s for the good of the sport that it’s out in the open.”
British Horseracing Authority’s Martin Fewell said last night: “BHA takes these allegations extremely seriously. We are working with all partners in our sport to ensure people are treated with respect.
“We are contacting the trainer concerned to seek further details.”