The 23-year-old Hollie Doyle set a new benchmark when clocking up her 107th victory of 2019 at Southwell last week- the most British winners in a year for a woman.
That put her in the top 10 for all British flat riders in a year when Rachael Blackmore was runner-up in the race to be Irish champion jump jockey.
The BBC reports that racing is a rarity in elite sport in having women and men competing against each other on a seemingly level playing field.
But while more than half of the people entering racing schools are women, only 14% of jockeys in Britain are female, says Women In Racing chair Tallulah Lewis.
In 2018 they got 8.2% of the rides but only 1% at the top Group or Grade One level, so the interest is there but something is stopping them reaching the top.
Is it down to ability, resilience or opportunity? The suspicion is that some trainers and owners remain wary of turning to a woman when there are a plethora of men available.
Doyle, along with Hayley Turner and Josephine Gordon – the only other women to have reached the century mark – is helping to change attitudes.
“Given the opportunities, females can compete on equal terms. I just think racing was stuck in the dark ages and was a bit of a man’s world but there’s enough evidence and results now to show females are just as good as males,” says Doyle.
Her target next year is to ride a winner at Group level, but why are more women not getting plum rides in the biggest races?
