By Graham Clark Lucy Wadham has high hopes that stable star Martello Sky is capable of giving her an emotional first success at The Festival by settling a score in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle on Tuesday 15th March. Although no stranger to the Cheltenham winner’s enclosure, success at The Festival has so far eluded […]
The Festival 2022: Lucy Wadham has high hopes for Martello Sky Read More »
A talented professional jockey, 24-year-old Tarnya Davis reached Becher’s on the second circuit before pulling up 100/1 chance Numerate in the 1989 renewal. Numerate was bought 48 hours before the big race by Tarnya’s father, Peter, from trainer Oliver Sherwood. She was a jockey for 10 years, partnering 47 winners under Rules, and married Sherwood in October, 1993. They have two children,
Auroras Encore’s stunning 66/1 success in the 2013 Grand National worth £975,000 provided trainer Sue Smith with the biggest success of her training career. The West Yorkshire handler became only the third woman to train a winner of the world-famous race, emulating Venetia Williams, who sent out 100/1 outsider Mon Mome in 2009, and Jenny
A Worcestershire lass, Jacqui Oliver still lives in the shadow of the Malvern Hills. She began riding from a young age and was soon competing in point-to-point and novice events. She spent some time in Ireland working as a Secretary, but riding in her spare time. Her father was the well respected Henry Oliver and
Grand National runners trained by women do not these days raise an eyebrow, but it’s only a generation ago that things were very different. The 30-year fight by the redoubtable Florence Nagle and her peers to train in their own right only saw victory in the summer of 1966 following a famous court case; before
Like most horse-mad little girls back in the 1950s, Jenny Pitman’s awareness of the great race dawned when watching the film National Velvet, in which a teenage girl played by the ravishing Elizabeth Taylor has to pretend to be a boy to ride the horse she has saved from the knacker’s yard and trained for
One of the best female riders of her generation, Gee Armytage had been victorious twice at the Cheltenham Festival before partnering the aptly named Gee-A in the 1988 Grand National. Gee-A was still going well on the second circuit before being pulled up before the 26th fence by his 22-year-old rider after she strained a muscle in her
Around 20 years ago, Sarah Swindells enjoyed riding as a point to point jockey in her spare time, as did her younger sister Katharine. The horses they rode were owned and trained by their father John on his farm in Cheshire – he and his wife Romy had also been point to point jockeys in
Grand National Ladies: Sarah Swindells in The Fox Hunters Chase Read More »
Long before women were permitted to become trainers, provided they had enough money, they were able to indulge their passion for the turf in ownership. Indeed, since the early years of the 20th century some of the most colourful and famous ladies of the turf have been involved with famous winners of the Grand National.
Female Grand National Jockeys: Riding in the Aintree Grand National is daunting for any jockey but until relatively recently, the race’s fences were barely the most formidable obstacles to be encountered by female jockeys wishing to compete in the race. First the law: women were actually prohibited from taking part until the Sex Discrimination Act
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