Racing has – at international level – long been dominated by men. But more and more women are drawn to the sport and choose a living as a jockey. And many of them are inspired by the women who have already proved that they can indeed match their male colleagues.
These famous women are breaking down barriers and paving the way for the female riders of the future. Here six of the greatest role models of all time are presented.
JULIE KRONE – USA
Julie Krone was born on 24 July 1963 in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She grew up among horses and followed in her mother’s footsteps and chose ‘the horse life’.
At 14 she watched Steve Cauthen, four years her senior, win the 1978 Triple Crown series with Affirmed. An experience that meant she too wanted racing as her living.
On 30 January 1981 she made her debut as a qualified jockey at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida, where she rode Tiny Star, and just a month later she won her first race ever and quickly became a well-known figure at many American racetracks.
In 1993 she became the first woman to win the Belmont Stakes, in the irons on Colonial Affair, and her career brought a total of 3,704 wins.
In 1999 she retired as the winning-most female jockey of all time, and in the years that followed she had a career as a commentator.
Julie Krone also became the first female jockey to be inducted into the National Museum of Horse Racing and Hall of Fame, and in addition she won the 1993 ESPN Professional Female Athlete of the Year as well as the 2004 Women’s Sports Foundation’s Wilma Rudolph Courage Award.
MICHELLE PAYNE – AUSTRALIA
Michelle Payne was born in 1985 and is still the only female jockey who can boast of having won the Melbourne Cup.
She grew up with the dream of becoming a successful jockey and absolutely reached the goals she had set herself. She received the prestigious Medal of the Order of Australia on the strength of her results.
Unfortunately the story of Michelle Payne also has a downside. In 2017 she was banned from riding in races after being caught using the banned, fat-burning substance phentermine.
She did however continue within the sport as an adviser to other female jockeys, and now she works among other things as a reporter.
HAYLEY TURNER OBE – ENGLAND
Hayley Turner was the first female jockey to win 100 Flat races on the British tracks within a single year. In addition it has come to eight Group race wins, among them the July Cup (Gr.1) with Dream Ahead.
Hayley Turner was born close to Nottingham Racecourse and has five siblings. Her mother was a riding instructor, which meant that she learned to ride early. She served her apprenticeship with Michael Bell in Newmarket and had her first ride on 27 March 2000 on a horse that broke down during the race.
Her first winner came at the eighth attempt with the horse Generate at Pontefract on 4 June 2000. The following winter she was sent for three months’ training with Tom Amoss in New Orleans, and in the winter of 2004 she rode for Godolphin in Dubai.
In 2008 Hayley Turner became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a year. Further triumphs followed, and she got her first Group 1 winner with Lady Deauville in Germany. The same year she was honoured as Channel 4’s Racing Personality of the Year.
In March 2009 she suffered a serious accident at Newmarket, but although she had been predicted to spend a whole season on the sidelines, she managed to get back in the saddle and win 60 races.
In 2011 – after adding further Group 1 triumphs to her record – Hayley broke her ankle in a fall at Bath. The same year she received the “Most Inspirational Sportswoman Award”.
On 31 May 2012 she wrote herself into racing history once again when she got a ride in the Dubai World Cup, and on 2 June the same year she became only the second female jockey to ride in the Epsom Derby.
Although things went well in neither the World Cup nor the Derby, Hayley carried on undeterred and in August won the American Grade 1 contest the Beverly D Stakes with the David Simcock-trained I’m A Dreamer.
In 2016 Hayley Turner received the title “Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE)”.
ROSIE NAPRAVNIK – USA
Rosie Napravnik was born on 9 February 1988 in Mendham, New Jersry. Both her parents worked within racing and Rosie began riding at a young age.
At 7 she rode in her first pony race. She spent her youth with a number of different trainers, and as an adult she won a good many big races – among them the 2011 Louisiana Derby as well as the Kentucky Oaks in both 2012 and 2014.
She is the only woman to have taken part in all three American Triple Crown contests, and she is also the only woman to have won the Breeders’ Cup twice – the Juvenile and the Distaff.
Rosie Napravnik won a total of 1,877 races and is still part of racing as an assistant to her husband, trainer Joe Sharp.
CHANTAL SUTHERLAND – CANADA
Chantal was born on 23 February 1976 in Winnipeg. She is a model, television personality and jockey. She grew up in Toronto, where her father had a horse farm.
After her final degree in communications and psychology from York University, she decided that she wanted a career as a jockey.
On 9 October 2000 she won her first race ever. It was at Woodbine in Toronto, and the very next year she was named Canada’s best apprentice jockey. That was repeated the following year, when she was one of Canada’s best athletes and earned 5.7 million dollars in eight months.
It came to a third place in the jockeys’ championship that year. She stayed in Canada until the end of 2004, from where she moved to Laurel Park in Maryland.
She also went through Del Mar Racetrack’s jockey programme. The track believed that through its female jockeys it could attract a younger audience, boys as well as girls. Del Mar focused on becoming a fashionable meeting place, and so the beautiful Chantal Sutherland – who was now a jockey – was hired as Del Mar’s new face.
And their strategy surely paid off. The public flocked to the track.
In March 2011 Chantal won the Santa Anita Handicap with the Bob Baffert-trained Game On Dude, and the following year – again on board Game On Dude – she became the first female jockey to win the Hollywood Gold Cup twice.
In 2012 Chantal announced that she was ending her career as a jockey, but that was quickly changed – and she has since taken part in, among other things, Svensk Galopp’s unofficial world championship for female riders.
HOLLIE DOYLE – ENGLAND
Hollie Doyle is regarded as one of the world’s best female jockeys right now. Very possibly the very best. In 2019 she rode 116 winners and set a new record for female riders – that was 10 more than Josephine Gordon had previously achieved.
In recent years her career has really taken off, and last year Hollie won both the French Oaks – the Prix de Diane (Gr.1) – and the Nassau Stakes (Gr.1) with Nashwa, the Prix de l’Abbaye (Gr.1) with The Platinum Queen, as well as a long list of other Group races including the Coventry Stakes (Gr.2) with Bradsell at Royal Ascot.
Hollie Doyle also came very close to winning last season’s Stockholm Cup International (Gr.3) at Bro Park with the Archie Watson-trained Outbox, who led to the last stride but had to settle for second place behind Hard One To Please.
Hollie Doyle has just returned after an injury, and she won straight away on her first ride of the year on 31 March at Newcastle.
