Queen Lizzie-beth
JOCKEY Lizzie Kelly is living her childhood dream as the first female to go for glory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in more than 30 years.
Lizzie, 23, has only been riding professionally for three years after ditching a career in event management to go full-time in the saddle.
And this Friday, she will ride Tea For Two in jump racing’s most prestigious event – and she has a decent chance at winning.
“I always dreamed of riding at Cheltenham when I was a kid,” says Lizzie.
“Some people want to be actresses or footballers, I just wanted to be a jump jockey.”
Lizzie has already become the first female jockey ever to win a Grade One race, the highest level in jump racing, when she won on board Tea For Two at Kempton Park.
And she will be hoping for more success this week as, with many of the big guns already out through injury, this could be one of the most open Gold Cups in years.
Lizzie adds: “A Gold Cup is very competitive and, in a funny sort of way, you don’t know where you’ll end up.
“But, beyond maybe Native River and Cue Card, they’re all much of a muchness. If we finished in the first five I’d be delighted.”
In just three years, the Devon-based jockey has progressed up the ranks as fast as any male jockey.
But Lizzie still gets occasional abuse
from ill-informed, misogynistic punters. She says: “The day I rode Tea For Two in the Lanzarote, someone wrote on Twitr te saying: ‘I would back Tea For Two in the Lanzarote but Liz Kelly is absolutely useless and weak because she’s a girl.’ "The horse won by a country mile and I had a bit of fun, replying: ‘How do you feel now?’ "Social media can be really horrible. I know other riders who’ve been sent: ‘I hope you fall off and die.’ There’s just no excuse for it.” It’s a hard sport – one of the few where competitors are followed around by an ambulance – and you need a mix of brute strength and intuition to keep a tonned-a-half of horse under restraint. Lizzie says: “I can ride as well as any lad. I’ve been riding horses all my life so, without realising it, I’ve built a body that is very strong. I’ve got a massive set of shoulders on me.
“I’ve had a six-pack for the majority of my life because I started this at such a young age.
“I had a fat phase, to be fair, around 18-19, but now I’m very strong.” While an audience of millions will watch her go for gold, they won’t see that the rest of the year is hard graft and solitude for an aspiring jockey.
Weekdays are spent travelling hours alone in the car for one ride, which might end up with a last-place finish.
Lizzie says: “I might as well live in the car – I actually could move in there as I have so much stuff in it. “Someone asked me the other day, ‘Is it boring?’ Well, actually, yeah, if you took the racing out of it, sort of it is. “Yesterday, for example, I spent six hours sat in the car for one ride. It was a good day, I came fourth but it’s hard. Six hours driving for six minutes of excitement.” In order to get as many race rides as possible, Lizzie, like all jockeys, has to sweat and diet to meet each racing weight. She says: “The lowest weight I ride at is 10 stones 3lbs and that requires some sweating to get to. I go running in all the sweat gear, like boxers do. I can run enough miles to lose three pounds.
“Every jockey has their go-to foods. I eat a lot of smoked salmon and mango.
“The mango is basically water so it’s easy to sweat out and the salt from the smoked salmon is good for replacing salts and stopping cramps.
“Those two balance out the two key elements of wasting, being dehydrated and cramps.”
But Lizzie adds: “I am not planning on ruining my body just for race riding to the point where I can’t have children further down the line.
“I have a minimum weight that’s reasonable, because otherwise it’s hugely risky.
“There’s huge questions about affecting your fertility. That really rang alarm bells for me.”
Lizzie, who rides for stepfather Nick Williams’ stable, has a few other choice mounts this week, including Agrapart in the Stayers Hurdle and Coo Star Sivola in the Martin Pipe Conditional Hurdle.
“We’re a small yard, we’ve a small team of horses,” she adds. “It really is taking on the big boys on each day.
“If a horse finishes third, fourth or fifth, it still feels as good as riding a winner anywhere else.
“It’s the fact you are finishing so close to other high-quality horses that other people have paid extortionate amounts of money for.
“We just hope they all run as well as they can. That’s as much as your horse can do.” ¬
The Cheltenham Gold Cup is this Friday at 3.30pm on ITV. For the latest on the Eddie Stobart Jockey Championships visit www. greatbritishracing.com