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Feature
More than a Lucky Diva
Defying the old-fashioned dogma that horse-riding is a man’s sport, young women are increasingly donning the silks and hitting the track. But it’s not all glory and glamour. Anna Lycett talks to up-and-coming jockey Briony Dunn about life in the saddle.
 Growing up in a racing family, Briony got an insider’s view of the racing industry from an early age. It may have been an advantage, but the 23-year-old did not receive a rails run to get to where she is today.
Her father is a racehorse trainer in Adelaide and her brother, Dwayne, 10 years her senior, is also a hoop (jockey), and an accomplished one too. Not only has he ridden in Hong Kong, where only the best jockeys are invited to ride, he is also the winner of this year’s Caulfield Cup and will be riding Melbourne Cup favourite, Tawqueet, on Tuesday.
Despite her surroundings, Briony didn’t always see herself becoming a jockey. She started out at Lindsay Park in South Australia “riding trackwork” (training racehorses, for the uninitiated) and describes herself as “a bit of a late-starter”, having begun her apprenticeship at the age of 19. “In our industry, that’s pretty late to start an apprenticeship,” she explains.
Nevertheless, Briony soon found success on the track, and began competing in city as well as country events. Four years later, she has 11 city wins under her belt - three on her favourite horse, Lucky Diva, in just over a month - and lists “being competitive at a Melbourne metropolitan level” as a major achievement.
“Whatever she lacks in skill, she makes up in dedication,” brother Dwayne told the Age newspaper last year. “She’s very conscientious and I think with all the help we can give her, she’ll make the grade.”
The rigours of being a jockey
While the prospect of earning thousands of dollars in a matter of minutes is a rather attractive one, if you’re looking for an easy ride you’d best forget it - especially if you’re not a morning person.
Briony starts the day at 3.30am - when some people her age are just returning home from a late night out - and is riding trackwork half an hour later. Her afternoons are spent at race meetings, which are held in all corners of the state.
Aside from the rigorous training schedule, there is the immense pressure on jockeys to maintain a low body weight. According to Briony, you have to be especially strict with your diet. The bottom line in racing is that “your body is your business and, if you’re heavy, you’re not making runs”. While Briony initially saw weight as a hurdle to riding competitively, she now rides regularly in the 50kg division.
Perhaps most arduous in the life of a jockey is the risk – horseracing is a dangerous sport. The wisdom offered by one jockey: “It’s not a matter of if you are going to get hurt; it’s a matter of when.”
An inquiry into safety in Victorian horseracing, prompted by the untimely deaths of two jockeys in March last year, found that 1000 WorkCover claims were recorded in the industry in the four years until 2005. The inquiry also found that people working with horses felt a sense of inevitability toward getting injured, which led to widespread under-reporting.
Briony is no stranger to getting hurt, having recently recovered from a spell on the sidelines. “I’ve only just come back from a broken wrist. It’s not really like any other job, because when you have time off, you’ve always got to start back from the bottom again and work your way up. I was out for about three months, so I’ve lost all my regular rides.”
Breaking the barriers
Horseracing is unique in that it is the one of the few sports where men and women compete as equals - although women fought long and hard to obtain this right. And while female jockeys have come a long way since first being granted licences in 1979, there is still concern that they are not given the recognition they deserve.
Women today account for 17% of jockeys in Victoria. But when the whips are cracking, they receive only 10% of the rides, and are often overlooked in favour of male jockeys for the more high-profile horses.
Trainer David Hayes recently made headlines for his decision to use Lisa Cropp on the impressive Miss Finland in this year’s Cox Plate, making her the third woman to compete in the event.
In regard to the attention received, sports writer Andy Withers observed that “female jockeys are generally still perceived in Australia to be something of an anomaly”. He also noted that “the achievements of female jockeys are still praised, if at all, with a faintly patronising ‘good on you’ attitude rather than simple admiration for a job well done”.
Briony is well aware of the challenges involved in being a woman in what is still a male-dominated industry. “It is frustrating some of the time because you know you’re on an equal level or sometimes even better than some of the male jockeys. But people still think males are stronger.”
Last year, Briony proved she can compete with the best, battling her brother down the home straight at Flemington on Poised To Win, only to be beaten at the post by a neck.
It was the reluctant attitude toward female jockeys that led Briony to relocate from South Australia to Melbourne. “I actually moved here for more opportunity; I just didn’t think it was going very far [in Adelaide].”
Melbourne has the advantage of more race meetings; “the more races there are, the more opportunities you get.” And she believes “Melburnians are a lot more willing to put females on. I really get a pretty fair go here,” she adds.
She has also found Melbourne to have a higher proportion of female jockeys and, although still vastly outnumbered, thinks the discrepancy is on the decline. Women currently make up one third of apprentice jockeys in Victoria, a sign that the industry is changing.
Further reading:
The Age -- Sister in the saddle trails brother in the know (pictured)
The Age -- Siblings battle it out at Flemington last year
Andy Withers’ column and blog on women in racing
WorkSafe report on safety in the Victorian horseracing industry
A history of women in racing
1850s |
Amateur “ladies only” events are held in Victoria, but women are not permitted to ride as professional jockeys or on professional tracks.
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1883 |
A record number of 43 women line up for the Ladies’ Trophy at Caulfield.
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1932 |
Precocious wins the Grand National Steeplechase, making Dorothy Sheil the first woman to train a winner at Flemington. The Victorian Racing Committee (VRC) refuses her entry to the mounting yard, then passes a resolution that trainers must hold permits - which are denied to women.
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1938 |
New Zealand trainer Mrs A. McDonald is the first woman to train a Melbourne Cup winner with Catalogue. Her husband is the registered trainer, but he gives her full credit during the presentation.
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1942 |
The white line is introduced at Victorian racetracks to designate areas prohibited to women.
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1940s/50s |
Wilhemena Smith becomes Australia’s first female jockey (unbeknown to her contemporaries), competing in Queensland as a man under the name of Bill Smith.
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Late 1960s |
Restrictions against female trainers are lifted, but female jockeys are still confined to “ladies only” events, which are held on non-professional tracks.
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1973 |
The Dame Merlyn Transition Handicap, Australia’s first meeting for female jockeys on a metropolitan racecourse, is held in Brisbane.
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1974 |
The VRC allows female jockeys to be registered for professional “ladies only” events.
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1978 |
Racing rules in New Zealand are amended to permit female jockeys.
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1979 |
The Australian ban on female jockeys is finally lifted. Linda Jones and Pam O’Neil become Australia’s first fully-registered female jockeys.
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1982 |
In Tasmania, Bev Buckingham becomes the first woman in the world to win a state jockeys’ premiership.
Under pressure from the State Government, the white line is abolished from Victorian racetracks. In its place, the VRC erects white fences for the same segregating purposes.
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1987 |
New Zealande jockey Maree Lyndon is the first woman to ride in the Melbourne Cup with Argonaut Style.
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1996-97 |
Gai Waterhouse, daughter of legendary trainer Tommy Smith, becomes the third trainer in history to train more than 100 metropolitan winners in one season.
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2001 |
Sheila Laxon becomes the first registered female trainer to officially train a Melbourne Cup winner with Ethereal.
Gai Waterhouse trifectas the Golden Slipper.
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2003 |
Clare Lindop is the first Australian woman to ride in the Melbourne Cup.
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2004-05 |
Taking out the Adelaide jockeys’ premiership, Clare Lindop becomes the first women to win a metropolitan jockeys’ premiership on mainland Australia.
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2006 |
Lisa Cropp tops the New Zealand jockeys’ premiership for the second consecutive season.
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Australia’s first female jockey finds recognition
Almost 30 years have passed since Pam O’Neill won the right for Australian women to compete as professional jockeys. Paving the way for the next generation of women in racing, she was hailed as the nation’s first female jockey (along with Linda Jones) in 1979. But in recent years, history has been rewritten with the discovery that a little-known jockey by the name of Bill Smith, who rode in Queensland during the 1940s and 1950s, was in fact a woman.
The world of racing in mid-twentieth century Australia was resolutely a man’s domain. Not only were women banned from riding and training horses, they could not even enter a betting ring or drinking venue. But within this world, Wilhemena Smith worked as a trainer and jockey, riding against men, under the assumed identity of Bill Smith. While her contemporaries were at times suspicious, it was not revealed until her death in 1975 that Bill Smith was actually a woman.
Bill Smith had a few wins on the country racetracks around Cairns during the 1940s and 1950s. He also trained a couple of horses, one a chestnut stallion called Sydney Two, who he rode in the Cairns Cup. Bill was remembered by his contemporaries as “only an average jockey”. But his greatest achievement was perhaps not his racing record, but duping the authorities, rising above the suspicion and mockery - which he no doubt encountered - and sustaining a career in such a male-dominated sport.
Bill kept to himself on the track and was considered somewhat eccentric for his refusal to change in front of the other riders. “The other jockeys all called him ‘Girlie’ because he’d always come to the races with the silks on under his clothes,” recalls retired trainer John Brady. There were other clues as well. According to an ex-worker at the Cairns racetrack, Bill had “hips like a woman and a voice like a woman.”
Linde Allendorf, who competed against Bill for about 10 years, says: “We all wanted to know if Bill Smith was a woman, as he spoke so softly. We were going to strip him one day in the jockeys’ room, but a stripe [steward] walked in and told us to stop.” Linde also remembers Bill falling from a horse at the Cairns track in the 1950s. “The ambulance people rushed to her aid, but Bill Smith would not let them touch her."
In daily life, Wilhemena lived alone, half a mile or so from the Cairns track. Her livelihood was the Cairns Brewery, where she rode her horse Sydney Two every day, leaving him to graze in the brewery yard.
After her retirement, Wilhemena survived on the pension. She died at the age of 88 in 1975, leaving no family behind. Much of her early life was pieced together by an elderly nurse who cared for her during her final weeks.
The daughter of English immigrants, Wilhemena had a tough upbringing in a Western Australian orphanage. Her mother died when she was very young and, struggling financially, her father jumped ship back to England, abandoning her. At the age of 16 or 17, Wilhemena ran away from the orphanage, demonstrating some of the courage and determination she would possess in later life.
Arriving in Adelaide, and sick of housework, Wilhemena dressed as man and landed a job on a boat. She sailed to and from Queensland, eventually settling in Cairns, where she “felt more at home” working as a stable-hand.
Wilhemena’s contribution to women in racing went largely unrecognised during her own lifetime. But thanks to the work of historians such as racing enthusiast Phil Purser, Wilhemena has taken her rightful place as Australia’s first female jockey.
For a more detailed account of Wilhemena’s life see this link.
To see a portrait of Wilhemena, painted toward the end of her life, see this link.
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