History-making jockey reflects
Sue Walsh earned herself a slice of racing history four decades ago, but she doesn’t consider her achievement at Timaru to be the most memorable of her career as a jockey.
She rode into the record books on July 22, 1978 as the first New Zealand female to win a race against her male counterparts when she guided the Ned Thistoll-trained Jaws to victory.
‘‘I remember the track was like a ploughed paddock,’’ said Walsh (nee Day). ‘‘When you’re riding you don’t usually hear the crowd and there wouldn’t have been that many people there that day, but when I hit the front I could hear them.
‘‘I only did it in the first place to prove a point. I couldn’t see why the girls couldn’t have a go.
‘‘I found my second win on that horse more satisfying. Being a staunch Cantabrian, I got a bigger buzz becoming the first female to ride a winner at Riccarton.
‘‘I used to ride at jump-outs and trials, usually on the rough ones, but riding was never really my thing, I much preferred the training side.’’ Walsh subsequently went on to become established as a trainer and enjoyed success in Australia by preparing Chatham to win the Listed Eagle Farm Stakes (2200m) and the Group II Taranaki Stakes (2000m) at home.
More recently from her Foxton base, she produced the now-retired Exquisite Jewel to triumph in the Group III Manawatu Classic (2000m) and to finish fourth in the Group I New Zealand Oaks (2400m).
This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of the first occasion New Zealand women rode against their male counterparts.
Vivienne Kaye, Joanne Hale, Joanne Lamond and Day became the first New Zealand female jockeys to ride against their male counterparts on July 15 1978.
Kaye rode at Trentham with Hale, Lamond and Day taking to the track at Waimate.
Day was not the first female jockey to salute on New Zealand soil. That honour went to Canadian hoop Joan Phipps who won at Te Awamutu in November 1977. It was her first ride in New Zealand.
A professional rider in Canada, Phipps was making her second trip to New Zealand. She also applied to ride against the males the previous year but her initial application was deferred by the New Zealand Racing Conference who had needed some convincing to license female riders.
The Racing Conference allowed females to be registered as probationary riders in July 1977 so had no grounds to refuse Phipps a licence when she returned in 1977 for her second visit. In the year following Day’s win, 13 female apprentices, including Linda Jones, won races in New Zealand.
New Zealand administrators might have been slower to licence female riders, but it is doubtful that any other racing jurisdiction in the world has accepted women riders as quickly and as successfully as New Zealand. Currently, females make up 43 per cent of New Zealand’s licensed jockeys and have been paid the same as their male colleagues from the outset.
When the racing season closes at the end of this month, Sam Collett will become the second female rider in three seasons to win the national jockeys’ premiership. Collett and her cousin Alysha Collett along with Danielle Johnson and Rosie Myers fill four of the top six places on the premiership ladder.
Collett’s first premiership success will be the sixth time a female has won the crown. Lisa Cropp won three successive premierships from 2005 and Lisa Allpress topped the premiership table in 2012 and 2016.
Sam Collett has won nine Group or Listed races this season and in total female riders have recorded 45 black type wins, with 22 of those coming at Group level.
Sam Spratt, Trudy Thornton Collett’s mother - and Danielle Johnson have all won Group I races this season. Jones was the first Kiwi female to win against the male riders in Australia in 1979.
The year 1982 was a monumental one for New Zealand female jockeys across the Tasman. Dianne Moseley became the first female to win a Group I in Australia when she took out the Doomben Cup and Maree Lyndon became the first female to ride in the Melbourne Cup.