Tough Ride For Women In Silk
The Age
Friday November 1, 1996
Riding for recognition
WHEN THE nation stops this week for the most prestigious event on the racing calender, the Melbourne Cup, how many women will be wishing they could exchange their fashion silks for racing silks?
There are 31 female jockeys licensed to ride in Victoria - women who have braved male territory in a country recognised for its competitive and fearless riders.
Some of this fearlessness and competitiveness has undoubtedly helped Sally Wynne become one of Australia's leading female jockeys.
Wynne was raised in a racing environment. Her mother and father were both jockeys, and her mother turned to training. "I was surrounded by horses, and I just liked riding them fast all the time. I had a little pony who used to do dressage, but I drove her mad and turned her into a lunatic by racing her all the time!" says Wynne.
"I strapped horses for Mum, when I was 14, which was when I was first allowed to. When she had winners, seeing the jockeys ride them and come back in, I just wanted to be aboard. I loved the competitiveness of it", she says.
When Wynne wanted to leave school at 16, her mother Dianne talked her into staying a year longer. "I wanted her to get an education as well, in case it didn't come off for her. It was all she ever wanted to be and she's always been a good rider." says Dianne.
Sally Wynne has matched men, proving she has the ability to ride well. In her last year as an apprentice in 1995/96, she notched up 16 city winners in Melbourne - Australia's toughest racing domain. Now 21 and a senior freelance rider, she is working on about 15 rides a week.
But Wynne feels it's still harder for female jockeys. "This time of the year, we don't get the opportunities in the big races to prove ourselves. As soon as a big race comes around, whether we've won on the horse's last start or not, they think oh, it's a big race, it's worth a bit more money, we're going to have to get a good jockey on. We don't get the chance to prove we are good jockeys and we can mix it with the best."
Trainer Pat Carey, with whom Wynne did her final year as an apprentice, says: "Women can be competitive with men, and female riders like Sally Wynne, Lisa Cropp and the Payne girls are more than capable of riding in The Melbourne Cup."
The age-old biological argument - that women are just not strong enough - is often used against female jockeys. "They can't really argue about anything else because I think we ride well enough," says Wynne. "It's just strength - that's the usual excuse you get if you're taken off a horse. 'We want a boy on because he's stronger or he might be able to keep the line better'. Men may be able to hit harder, but I don't think you need to be able to hit horses hard."
Pat Payne, a former leading jockey, trainer and father of well-known jockeys Paddy and Therese, questions the prejudice surrounding strength. "I don't think strength is everything in race riding. I think balance and judgment, when to make your run and when not to, when to hang on and when to go, and using your head, making your run at the right time and not being frightened to take a gap when it's there - all those things come into focus . . . strength is a long way down the list."
Therese Payne has also demonstrated her ability, winning against Australia's leading jockeys Gary Hall and Mark Dittman on a 40/1 chance in a past Caulfield Cup.
On the day I spoke to Pat Payne, three of his daughters - Therese, 26, Maree, 22, and Kathy, 15 - had all ridden winners that afternoon in Ararat.
Payne believes that if Therese had a chance to ride a good horse in the Melbourne Cup, she could ride home the winner.
However, it's not easy for any jockey to get a chance to ride in the Melbourne Cup, whether male or female. There are only about 20 runners and hundreds of jockeys on the day, and some now come from interstate and overseas. And for women it's a little bit harder.
The prejudice against female jockeys is less evident in New Zealand, says Pat Payne, who was raised there.
Two New Zealand jockeys, Maree Lyndon and Linda Ballantyne, are the only women to have raced in the Melbourne Cup. Lyndon rode Argonaut Style in 1987 and Ballantyne rode Plume D'or Veille in 1989. No Australian woman has ridden in the Cup.
Australia was one of the last countries to lift the ban on women riding in professional races. Until 1974, the only races for women were at picnic meetings. "We'd average three rides a season and what you'd learnt in the first ride you'd forgotten by the third." says Dianne Wynne.
Spearheaded by Pam Barker from Geelong, female riders formed the Victorian Ladies Jockey Association in 1971. The first victory for the group came in the 1974/75 season when women were allotted 12 ladies races at professional country meetings.
Dianne Wynne took over from Baker and pushed for a city race for women at the Moonee Valley Racing Club. At the time, Wynne was also riding well, winning the Ladies Premiership three times.
European and New Zealand champions Joanna Morgan and Linda Jones, respectively, were invited to compete alongside Australia's top 10 female riders in the first Victorian metropolitan ladies race at Moonee Valley. Morgan, who was fully licensed with the Irish Turf Club and a veteran of 700 professional starts, was also offered a ride in a mixed race in country Victoria. Her application was rejected. Pressure for a change of rules mounted and later that year, women jockeys were finally allowed to ride against men in professional races.
But Dianne Wynne missed out on these opportunities. She had retired the year before to become a trainer. "What we had done was pave the way for the younger women. For us to race against the men was very difficult, as we were not experienced enough. You needed to have the same opportunities of an apprenticeship and then work your way up. I was so glad to see it happen, but also wished I was 20 years younger."
© 1996 The Age