Are female jockeys as good as the men?
By grandpa_lash
@grandpa_lash (5225)
Australia
November 1, 2008 9:09am CST
I will state right up I am firmly in favour of female jockeys and consider them just as good as men, despite the fact they do not get the same chances. What prompted this discussion was the running of the VRC Derby today in Melbourne, Australia, a group 1 race for 3yos worth $1.5 million over 1.5 miles.
The shortest priced favourite in the history of the race went round against a field of fair horses, none of whom had previously run beyond 10 furlongs (2000 metres) from memory, and beat all but one horse by 4 lengths. That horse was ridden by the only female jockey in the race, and gave the favourite a thrashing at 100/1. The jockey has won at least 3 of the past four jockey's premierships in her home state (for some reason I can't find anything at all on the 2006/7 season), and is considered by good judges to be the best female jockey in the world.
But there still seems to be a bias by many of the older trainers, owners, and punters agaisnt female jockeys, and they have an even harder struggle than the boys to succeed despite their talent. What do you feel?
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1 response
@sharra1 (6340)
• Australia
2 Nov 08
Well I am a firm believer in girls being given the same chance as boys and that does not happen. I know that people will argue that men are stronger than women but we can see in the weight lifters that girls can build their strength. Also girls are more likely to have an empathy for the horse.
I think if that if the girls are trained properly and shown how to build their strength then there should be no problem. Their will always be some who are better than others but it seems to me that if they were given an equal chance they would be fine.
In reality the girls have to work very hard to be given a chance and they have to be better than the men to be considered equal. That seems to the story I see in every profession, women have to be better than men to even have a chance of being considered as suitable. It just is not fair.
