Mairead Fortune is 17, working a dangerous job, in all sorts of weather, with just one Sunday off a fortnight, yet from the looks of things persuading her of the merits of returning to regular second-level education may be a task.
She is one of 31 students receiving a much more irregular but exciting education in the 2016 crop at the Race Academy & Centre of Education (RACE) in Kildare town.
It is Irish racing’s training body, offering courses for stable staff and other areas of the bloodstock industry. It’s a rare student though who doesn’t have the dream of becoming a professional jockey.
Fortune from Ferns in Co Wexford, and three others, Erica Byrne-Burke, 17, from Ratoath, Co Meath, Lisa Marie Owens, 16, from Kilmead in Co Kildare, and Jamie Cullen, 19, from Ballyfermot in Dublin, agree about the dream.
They also agree on school being a dirty word, how most of the lads in their class are WAY too cocky, and that Zinwar is a sly menace. Zinwar is one of the ex-racehorses employed to teach students how to ride.
“He bucked me off, kicked me in the side of the head, and when he jumped over me he stepped on my arm,” recalls Owens. “I was off for three days.” She makes it sound like she’s afraid someone might think she was slacking.
“He’s got me off too,” grins Cullen. “And a lot of others.”
“He knows every trick in the book,” agrees Fortune. “He’s actually easy to ride, just sneaky. It’s two others, Stradbally and Volt Sun, who are the hard ones.”
In their racing careers, prior to taking the mickey out of young riders, both Stradbally and Volt Sun were trained by Conor O’Dwyer, a RACE graduate himself who twice won both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Champion Hurdle.
Johnny Murtagh had never sat on anything bigger than a pony before going to RACE and going on to become one of the great international flat jockeys.
RACE officials maintain that out of each graduating class half will become licensed riders and of those just five will ride out their apprentice claim. The others become stable staff and a decade after graduation 80 per cent still work in racing, somewhere in the world.
Harder
However it is exceptional stories such as Murtagh’s which fuel the dream, the dream which four of the current hopefuls agree remains harder for a woman. Because if there’s one other thing they agree on it is that they hear the word “strength” way too much.
The presumption that males are stronger on a horse has burrowed into racing’s consciousness like a sexist tick, an acknowledgement that restraining half a tonne of thoroughbred sometimes requires brute force but often ignoring how making it go fast demands a very different type of strength, a strength rooted in fitness.
Lester Piggott once boiled the difference down to the power involved in staying as still as possible in the saddle – “You need more strength to stand still on one leg than to walk down the street. It’s not the strength that bends iron bars. It’s the strength of an acrobat on a tightrope.”
Such skill is hardly confined to a single gender although Piggott memorably tarnished his equality credentials by once dismissing female jockeys on the basis of their backsides being the wrong shape.
Such attitudes remain virulently kicking in some parts of racing despite the achievements in recent years of Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh in particular.
“Owner and trainers have it in their heads that lads are stronger,” Cullen says.
“Even if there’s a girl who’s well capable, just as good as a lad, they’ll still throw the lad up,” maintains Byrne-Burke. “Trainers have to have winners and they’re not going to risk a girl when they can get an experienced jockey. But you’ve got to get experience from somewhere.”
“And how can we get experience if they won’t let us ride,” argues Fortune.
It’s a catch-22 situation familiar to all aspiring riders, irrespective of gender. But the 2016 RACE class contains a record 14 women and with humanity getting larger, and weight still a vital element for anyone employed to ride horses, it is surely in racing’s long-term interests to be more inclusive.
“There aren’t enough opportunities in Irish racing for youngsters generally, and for girls in particular,” argues RACE’s chief executive, Keith Rowe.
Opportunities
“The industry as a whole needs to take a broad look at how it attracts people because a crisis is coming with staffing in yards. We need to address core issues, part of which is how to make racing attractive as a career and that means providing young people with opportunities, especially girls.
“We had Samantha Wynne here a dozen years ago and she couldn’t buy a ride. Now she’s been a champion apprentice in New Zealand and has ridden over 150 winners. It’s tough seeing people having to go to England or Australia in order to prove they can do a good job.
“You can’t complain about not being able to get staff in Ireland if you’re not offering people opportunities and a programme for a career,” he adds.
Rowe plays down the strength argument as too pat when it comes to opportunities for female jockeys.
“As sports science becomes more prominent I think that will be seen to have less truth in it than people imagine. Physical strength is just one factor. Riding is also a combination of skill, balance, coordination and courage.
“It’s slightly different in National Hunt racing where physique and durability come into it more but I think any objective observer would otherwise conclude there’s not much, if any, difference, certainly not enough to explain the difference in opportunities,” he says.
Each RACE student is placed with a trainer as part of their course and Jamie Cullen feels lucky she is working for the Curragh based Tracey Collins who feels standards among jockeys in general, and especially women, have improved dramatically.
“For me it has gone from a question of women being strong enough to now just simply being good enough,” Collins says.
“Fitness has gone to another level. Riders now are going to gyms, looking after their bodies and that is having a huge effect. You also have to have self belief. I don’t wake up in the morning thinking I have to do better as a trainer because I’m a woman: I have to do better in order to compete,” she adds.
However, if old attitudes die hard, the enthusiasm which encourages prospective jockeys to pursue the dream at RACE in the first place can fade very quickly sometimes.
Combining riding out with daily mucking out might no longer be the norm but working with horses remains a dangerous and uncomfortable job far away from the glamour of the racecourse. Byrne-Burke couldn’t ride for three months after tearing ankle ligaments in a fall.
“But I wouldn’t be able to have a job in an office, 9 to 5,” she says, making light of the 6.30 starts and one day off in 14.
“You’re going out every day to do something you love doing,” argues Cullen.
“And we have all the gear so you never get wet,” says Owens.
“Ah, you do!” Cullen laughs.
Early age
For those bitten by the horse bug at an early age, and often dismissive of the Leaving Cert’s relevance, youthful exuberance makes it hard to imagine a time when a warm, dry and mundane office might seem attractive.
But the odds against making a career as a professional jockey are still very long, something Cullen acknowledges, without letting it sway her at all.
“If it doesn’t happen for me, I’ll keep working with horses, be an exercise rider,” she says. Since RACE graduates are snapped up worldwide, employment is rarely an issue.
A job isn’t the dream though as Byrne-Burke reminds her – “You can’t do that: because we’re all going to be jockeys!”
“Basically it comes down to not giving anyone a reason not to give you rides,” Fortune says.
The self-interest Irish racing has in making gender a non-issue to those young hopefuls plucky enough to try and become jockeys in the first place would seem to be obvious. Simply betting on a love of the horse being enough isn’t good enough anymore. And preparing people for the plane is self-defeating. New thinking is surely required.
“We want to make it big,” four of the 2016 RACE class agree.
And that means?
“Being a professional; trainers ringing you up to ride their horses,” Fortune says.
“Be wanted,” Byrne-Burke says.
“Yeah, be wanted,” they all agree.
