Headstone campaign for pioneering female trainer
It is a commonly held belief that the first female trainer “officially” to train a winner was Norah Wilmot at Brighton in August 1966, shortly after her great friend Florence Nagle had, at the third time of asking, won a Court of Appeal judgment against the Jockey Club to allow women to become trainers.
Until then, they had trained under the name of proxies, either head lads or assistants. Indeed, Wilmot, under the name of her head lad G Metcalfe, had sent out Haulfryn to win the Doncaster Cup in 1937.
But history is always good for a bit of revision and a campaign not only to gain recognition for Ellen Chaloner, who sent out Jersey Lily to win the Triennial Stakes (now the Jersey Stakes) at Royal Ascot under her own name in 1887, but to raise funds to provide a headstone for her unmarked grave in Newmarket has been revived by her descendents.
Chaloner was born in Middleham in 1846. Her father was successful trainer John Osborne, and she later married one of his jockeys, Tom Chaloner, and they had seven sons and a daughter.
In 1884, Chaloner started training in Newmarket, but two years later died, aged 47, and with their sons too young to take over, his wife was granted a permit by the Jockey Club. The male-only gender stipulation for a training licence did not
come into being until 1920, by which time, ironically, the Suffragettes’ job was almost done and women had the vote.
After handing over to a son, she continued to live in Newmarket until she died in 1944, aged 98. Her yard, Osborne House, and 19 stables at the foot of Warren Hill are now an overspill yard and lads’ hostel for Sir Mark Prescott.
Her story is well known to the trainer. “They bred and raced horses and sustained a good living at it for 50 years,” Prescott explained.
“She was a substantial figure, everyone liked and knew her, she lived in some style and there is evidence of plenty of money at one time, so it is strange she was buried in an unmarked grave – I’ve never worked that one out.”