Kelly has last laugh at those who wrote off riding ambition
Jockey admits to a chip on shoulder after jokes Bold tactics pay off with victory on Siruh Du Lac
They sniggered when a schoolgirl called Lizzie Kelly announced her ambition to be a professional jockey. Yesterday, those doubters came joyfully to mind for the 26-year-old as she held aloft her trophy in the winner’s enclosure on a historic day for women in racing.
Her success on Siruh Du Lac in the Brown Advisory and Merriebelle Stable Plate Handicap Chase came less than an hour after Bryony Frost’s heroics in the Ryanair Chase. With Rachael Blackmore set for a record-smashing 17 rides, it has been another Festival of trailblazing for the women on horseback.
Kelly, who is based in Devon, produced a bold, front-running ride on six-year-old Siruh Du Lac, who is trained by her stepfather Nick Williams.
“I grew up with people laughing at me when I said I wanted to be a jockey,” said Kelly, who was screaming with joy earlier at her triumph. “That gives you a chip on your shoulder and you’ve got something to prove.”
Cheltenham and racing are way ahead of other sports when it comes to gender equality. Numbers of women winners have risen steadily since the first, Caroline Beasley, on Eliogarty in the Foxhunter Chase in 1983. There were two winners in 1987, both ridden by Gee Armytage, three in 2017 and a record four in 2018.
As far as Kelly is concerned, the sport is now a level playing field. “The fact that we’ve come so far in a relatively short period is massive,” she added. “On a day-to-day basis, I think we are getting the same amount of opportunities now and I think girls slightly have an advantage in that you can do the low weights too, so that’s a good thing.”
There has been a separate weighing room for some years at Cheltenham and it is regularly in full use. Women previously had to get changed in a broom cupboard.
“We love being together,” she said. “I’ve been race-riding for 10 years, started point-to-pointing at 16, but in the last three or four years there is an actual group of us in what is a mini-weighing room now – rather than an add-on... Now there are so many, you sometimes don’t need to go in to get your hat tied because you are there chatting to the girls. Boys don’t want to talk about nail polish or is leopard skin in this year, they don’t want to talk about that. It’s nice to have the girls.”
Kelly finds it particularly moving that she is inspiring young girls to get on horseback. “That gets you,” she said. “When you have got a small girl that comes up and says, ‘You’re my favourite jockey’ – the fact they even know me is mindboggling.”
Kelly said Blackmore, the Irishwoman who rides in the Gold Cup today, is the “idol we should all have”. “Girls have a tendency to be jealous, and I think it’s really important for everyone, every girl – I’m not saying any of us are jealous – but I’m just saying that you must appreciate what she is doing for the sport,” she said.
A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to support the breakthrough by women and ensure that there could one day be a 50-50 split in winners. The British Horseracing Authority set up a diversityin-racing steering group in 2017, which last year published a series of recommendations.
Nick Rust, CEO of the BHA, said that the women’s success at Cheltenham “helps spread the message that female jockeys are just as good as the men”. “I think we’re near the stage now where we can stop referring to them as female jockeys – they are just jockeys, plain and simple,” he said.
A spokesman for the Jockey Club added: “As we’ve seen this week and for many years now, a jockey’s gender is not important.”
For Kelly, it is now time for other sports to take note. “I think racing needs to shout about what we do more,” she said. “Equal prize money, equal riding fee. That is rare in elite sport. We’ve got a lot to shout about and I think we’re doing a good job of it.”