Brian O'Connor profiles Cathy Gannon, the first woman to win the apprentice jockeys title in Ireland: There is a temptation to tell Catherine Gannon's story in almost cartoon terms, because the dots join up to present such an easy picture.

A movie scriptwriter would recognise the ingredients immediately: unknown emerges from nowhere to overcome untold obstacles and triumph despite the odds. A sort of Sea Biscuit sans blinkers.

But that tale would be an injustice, and it would be a picture that Gannon - yesterday named The Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sportswoman of the Year - herself wouldn't recognise. One of the most inspired sports stories of 2004 deserves a lot better than the Cinderella treatment.

Talk to those who know the 23-year-old jockey and the substance that inspired her to re-write the history books becomes immediately obvious. Gannon has the ideal physique for her sport, but if she ever starts growing violets they will have the confidence to bloom rather than shrink into the shadows.

"It's hard not to notice Cathy. We're talking about a very determined young lady. She's had to fight her corner all her life and that's stood her in good stead in this game," says Michael Kinane, one of the world's great jockeys and a man not given to hyperbole. So when he ponders Gannon's achievement in becoming the champion apprentice jockey of 2004, the word "momentous" is not used lightly. Yet it is entirely appropriate.

It's 22 years since Jenny Pitman broke the mould in these islands by training the Grand National winner Corbiere. Now the presence of women like Jessica Harrington and Frances Crowley at the top of the training tree is taken for granted. But when it comes to giving a leg up, the vast majority hoisted into the saddle remain men.

The well documented exception is the American rider Julie Krone, who has won classics and a Breeders' Cup during a long and injury-ravaged career.

But the argument from many flat-earthers on this side of the pond remains the same. It's one thing being perched on a horse going around a fast, flat oval in the US. But when it comes to the likes of the Curragh on a wet October, brute strength is vital. What Gannon has done is inflict the first chinks of change into a mindset.

A total of 32 winners allowed her to win the apprentice title by three from Rory Cleary and a platoon of other ultra-promising young males. It's the first time a woman has held such a title, one that has been won by the likes of Kinane, John Murtagh and Pat Smullen. It's no guarantee for the future, but as stepping stones go, there is none more important.

Central to Gannon's development is trainer John Oxx, who still remembers the day she arrived in his yard as part of the latest batch from the apprentice school.

"She was tiny, so small, but still had this great confidence and a natural way with horses. You could tell she had ridden before. But her size meant we kept her to ponies for about a year before letting her on a racehorse," he says.

Gannon's previous experience with horses had come from riding ponies around her native Donaghmede on Dublin's north side. A close-knit family loved trotting horses, and still compete at the track in Portmarnock. At 15, however, a schoolteacher recommended the apprentice school in Kildare.

"I used to cry going back there after weekends," she admitted later, but stickability is not something Gannon reserves for the saddle. Ten months at RACE was followed by the move to Oxx's. At 16, she had her first ride in a race, and four weeks later, in August of 1998, came her first winner, Quevilly at Tipperary.

"I misjudged the winning post and didn't realise I'd won!" she said.

A natural horsewoman, who undertakes the vital job of breaking in yearlings at the Oxx stable through the winter, the tactical side of race-riding was a very different matter and required hard work.

"You can have a very successful jockey who is awful with difficult horses. The two don't go hand in hand and the tactical side of things took her a while. But what she could always do is push one out well and look tidy doing it," says Oxx.

The result of such hard work is that Gannon is now indistinguishable from her male rivals through a race.

"She's very aggressive and not slow to fight her corner," declares Kinane. "But she's well liked. If there is any resentment, I haven't seen it. Professionals will always appreciate the sort of talent she has."

Gannon has predicted she may have to leave this country because of the lack of opportunities here. But that is a reality for many riders given the competition for a relatively small number of top jobs.

What is certain is that if she does leave Ireland it will be after making a huge impact on the present - and possibly on the future.

"Because of Cathy, more and more girls will get involved in racing," argues Kinane. "The reality is that lads are getting physically bigger and there will be more opportunities for all the other Cathys that are out there. Certainly when they see what she has done, they will be more prepared to try."

That's some achievement, and maybe the one that will be the most valuable result of a remarkable year.