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and telly uek is set ardust to k as she first ever a favourite Day, t love is looking ly day out”. ust over the Wirral, she’ll oveted style debut at the to be my first really can’t y training … I’m wn e s g one new, p e Cheltenham Festival. She reckons there are now more opportunities in equine sports than in cycling, adding: “There are lots of very strong women.” One of those is Lizzie Kelly, 23, who became only the second woman ever to race in the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival last month. She believes women are beginning to show their mettle in the so-called Sport of Kings, saying: “I think it’s fabulous there’s a jockey who is a female in the Gold Cup.” Then there’s Irish-born Katie Walsh, 32, who is poised to ride in this Saturday’s Randox Health Grand National, having already come third on Seabass in 2012 – the best performance by a woman in the four-mile steeplechase ever. But Katie doesn’t expect any favours out on the course because she’s a woman. In the run up to this week’s action she told the Daily Star: “There’s a lot of chat about women in racing this season and some good results. “I love what I do and I don’t feel like I am any different to anyone else that does it. “You’d just love to win the Grand National whoever you are, man or woman – it’d be a fairytale.” Racing was the second most attended sport in Britain in 2016 with six million fans going to meetings. And 39% of those are women – a higher figure than in other top sport.
The numbers have no doubt been helped, in part, by the hoards of celebrity fans eagerly grabbing their race cards in recent years.
You’d expect the likes of Zara Tindall, 35, to be snapped at races like the Grand National.
But a new breed of showbiz punter has emerged over the last few years with Coleen Rooney, 31, TV’s Jorgie Porter, 29, and Kym Marsh, 40, among the legions of famous faces being spotted at Aintree.
Other celeb fans include X Factor’s Simon Cowell, 57, motoring guru Jeremy Clarkson, 56, and singer Lily Allen, 31.
And some haven’t stopped at having a wager – many are investing in their own thoroughbreds too.
Football’s big names were some of the first to get involved in buying racehorses such as Sir Alex Ferguson, 75, and ex-England star Michael Owen, 37.
But now cricket legend Freddie Flintoff, 39, actor James Nesbitt, 52 and TV legends Ant and Dec, both 41, have also got in on the act. Meanwhile, the nation’s top musicians are queuing up to perform at Aintree, which attracts 150,000 racegoers over three days.
The Lightning Seeds play on Thursday, the first day of the festival, and singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, 37, will perform on Ladies’ Day. Laura Wright, 26, the famous sporting soprano who will sing the national anthem before the Grand National, says: “The event brings together both my love of sport and my love of fashion.
“Ladies’ Day is such a colourful day and it is wonderful seeing so many women really make the effort to look stylish and glamorous.”
With 600million people tuning in around the globe for the Grand National and £250million bet on the race itself, it’s no wonder Sam Quek is feeling excited.
As she says: “Aintree always delivers as a spectacle.”