Big hurdles for female jockeys

IN the six races that are open to professional jockeys at the Cheltenham Festival today, there will be a total of 98 runners.

How many of those horses will be ridden by a female jockey? Four.

And Rachael Blackmore has the leg-up on three of those.

The only other female getting paid to compete will be conditional rider Alice Stevens, who will partner rank outsider Shared in the last race of the day.

Five years ago, Blackmore recorded two winners at a meeting which saw Bryony Frost become the first woman to record a victory in a Grade One race at the Festival when Frodon won the Ryanair Chase.

Blackmore and Frost were seen as trailblazers but it is clear that the trail is far from a clear one for female jockeys.

A year or so after her Festival win, Frost (right) lodged a complaint against fellow jockey Robbie Dunne and the allegations of bullying and harassment were upheld.

Dunne was banned for 18 months, reduced to 10 on appeal.

But while Frost has not exactly been out in the cold ever since that judgement, chances in decent races have become few and far between.

With her personality and talent, Frost should be a star of the sport but the fact remains that the likes of Blackmore and, in flat racing, Hollie Doyle, are outliers.

Blackmore and Doyle are brilliant but the pathway for talented horsewomen is clearly an unnecessarily difficult one.

There are many who believe the Cheltenham dominance of the Irish – and Willie Mullins, in particular – is a problem the sport needs to address.

Maybe. But the dominance of male participants is a problem that needs addressing more urgently.