NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
- Neon
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
Are they going to give female trainers a 1.5kg allowance as well?
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- Ash2Ash
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
If SAJA has failed to secure an "adequate" number of female apprentices over the past decade, I don't see how the 1,5kg allowance is going to be of any use to address SAJA's challenges.
The NHRA and the operators need to step up and find solutions to attract and fast-track female apprentices with proper incentives - not this 1.5kg ....
The NHRA and the operators need to step up and find solutions to attract and fast-track female apprentices with proper incentives - not this 1.5kg ....
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- mr hawaii
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
Let them release the amount of females they have taken in per year since women were allowed ...then show how many females actually rode in races...how many rode out their 4kg allowance and how many actually rode for more than 5 years after qualifying.... then we will have a true picture .... should we also not begin to give male riders over 50 an allowance due to their diminished strength and testosterone... sometimes it's not good to be woke just because you woke up with a stupid idea
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- Muhtiman
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
.....like I said....it will soon be clear on who is responsible for this brain f@rt.....and as you say a move like this, that only benefits one person....really starts the rumor mill.....and makes people jump to conclusions before the facts and motivation are clearly communicated.....:ohmy:
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- mr hawaii
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
And if it's strength that makes horses run faster then trainers would be putting up strong riders overweight to win races...when Rachel or Haley or Hollie win a race is it the horse's ability that gets them home because they are supposedly weaker in a finish...nonsense....if I still owned a horse I would have no problem with any woman with ability riding and I recall once years ago a visiting female appy rode something I owned a tail of and her feedback was better than most...
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- mikesack
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago - 2 years 10 months ago
Women jockeys in Oz and the Uk can hold their own against their male counterparts, Rachel Blackmore is an example.
However in SA somehow the girls have failed to get a foot in the door in a male-dominated profession.
Like it was mentioned elsewhere once the claim fell away then the rides dried up.
Lisa Prestwood was an exception and hopefully Rachel too.
However Leslie Sercombe in Ngong is well established even with a debilitating illness like MG.
To attract young girls into the SAJA the incentive that you can make a CAREER in riding horses is most important and the 1.50kg claim will give trainers the incentive to book the lassies on their charge.
With the given experience the girls could go on abroad to ride as either work or regular riders.
Was it Denise Lee that is riding in the USA presently?
The Harness Racing industry has
many opportunities for the lassies, in any given raceday you will find the likes of Amanda Turnbull, Ellen Tormey and a whole host of other names who have successfully made a career
in Harness Racing.
However that is in Oz and will not be easy for our female riders
to break into that industry.
In France and Sweden you will find any amount of female riders
in the Monte races.
However in SA somehow the girls have failed to get a foot in the door in a male-dominated profession.
Like it was mentioned elsewhere once the claim fell away then the rides dried up.
Lisa Prestwood was an exception and hopefully Rachel too.
However Leslie Sercombe in Ngong is well established even with a debilitating illness like MG.
To attract young girls into the SAJA the incentive that you can make a CAREER in riding horses is most important and the 1.50kg claim will give trainers the incentive to book the lassies on their charge.
With the given experience the girls could go on abroad to ride as either work or regular riders.
Was it Denise Lee that is riding in the USA presently?
The Harness Racing industry has
many opportunities for the lassies, in any given raceday you will find the likes of Amanda Turnbull, Ellen Tormey and a whole host of other names who have successfully made a career
in Harness Racing.
However that is in Oz and will not be easy for our female riders
to break into that industry.
In France and Sweden you will find any amount of female riders
in the Monte races.
Last edit: 2 years 10 months ago by mikesack.
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Re: Re:NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
From France Galop
France Galop has reviewed the 2kg weight allowance (up to 4.5kg, or 9lb, for female apprentices) given to female jockeys since March 2017.
This unprecedented measure in horse racing has met its goals. The number of starters ridden by female jockeys in flat racing has doubled since then. A 165% increase in the number of wins has also been recorded.
France Galop has monitored the effects of the rule and received advice on the matter from trainers, jockeys (both male and female) and jockeys’ agents, and decided to lower the weight allowance in the best interests of fair competition and breeding selection.
The weight conditions will now be distinct over flat and jumps:
FLAT: The weight allowance is reduced from 2.0kg to 1.5kg (roughly 4 to 3lbs) and will be limited to a maximum of 4kg (8lbs) for apprentices and young jockeys.
It is also planned to replace the program of 40 races restricted to female jockeys with a series of races for any jockey who has not won 10, 15 or 20 races during the year.
JUMPS: The weight allowance is maintained at 2kg for female jockeys but will be capped at 4kg.
Edouard de Rothschild, President of France Galop, explains: "Nearly a year on from the inception of this weight allowance for female jockeys, the visibility of these sportswomen has been reinforced. France Galop hopes this positive effect will be long-lasting. The measure will therefore be continued while undergoing an evolution which has been widely discussed among racing's stakeholders."
France Galop has also decided to take new steps to promote race riding by revising the weight allowance thresholds according to the number of wins (currently 40 over jumps and 70 on the Flat) for apprentices. The secretary of Racing will work out a new set of thresholds to be implemented before the second quarter of 2018.
France Galop has reviewed the 2kg weight allowance (up to 4.5kg, or 9lb, for female apprentices) given to female jockeys since March 2017.
This unprecedented measure in horse racing has met its goals. The number of starters ridden by female jockeys in flat racing has doubled since then. A 165% increase in the number of wins has also been recorded.
France Galop has monitored the effects of the rule and received advice on the matter from trainers, jockeys (both male and female) and jockeys’ agents, and decided to lower the weight allowance in the best interests of fair competition and breeding selection.
The weight conditions will now be distinct over flat and jumps:
FLAT: The weight allowance is reduced from 2.0kg to 1.5kg (roughly 4 to 3lbs) and will be limited to a maximum of 4kg (8lbs) for apprentices and young jockeys.
It is also planned to replace the program of 40 races restricted to female jockeys with a series of races for any jockey who has not won 10, 15 or 20 races during the year.
JUMPS: The weight allowance is maintained at 2kg for female jockeys but will be capped at 4kg.
Edouard de Rothschild, President of France Galop, explains: "Nearly a year on from the inception of this weight allowance for female jockeys, the visibility of these sportswomen has been reinforced. France Galop hopes this positive effect will be long-lasting. The measure will therefore be continued while undergoing an evolution which has been widely discussed among racing's stakeholders."
France Galop has also decided to take new steps to promote race riding by revising the weight allowance thresholds according to the number of wins (currently 40 over jumps and 70 on the Flat) for apprentices. The secretary of Racing will work out a new set of thresholds to be implemented before the second quarter of 2018.
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- mikesack
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Re: Re:NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
Time for change..................
The ride of her life
07 July 2013 - 02:02
BY LEIGH-ANNE HUNTER
SOLE SURVIVOR: Denise Lee, the only female apprentice now in training at a jockey academy in South Africa
Lifestyle Magazine
To date, no woman jockey has ridden in the Durban July - and not because girls lack talent. Leigh-Anne Hunter investigates the extreme, punishing, male-dominated world of horse racing
There's something about the way Mr Welch knots his tie that makes me wonder if he ever raced horses. Yes, he was a jockey, he says from behind the steering wheel of the jockey academy bus. Retired at 28.
Mr Welch drives apprentices to races. He's driving four now. Gruelling career jockeys have, he tells me. Back still gives him trouble. "Takes a toll on your body. Most guys don't stay long. You get tired."
I ask him if he knows of the woman jockey. That's right: the woman jockey. There are more than 100 of the male kind.
"Justine King?" She was one of his appies. Just qualified. "Tough sport for a girl. Haven't been many. Lisa ... what is it? Prestwood. She did all right. But most girls don't stay long. They have babies." Mr Welch straightens his tie.
Tough sport for girls. One reveals: "This other jock, hey, he punched me in the ribs after a race. So I broke his nose." Since then, she says, she was never hassled again.
An estimated 15 South African women have raced locally in the past two decades, none in the Durban July.
"You aren't allowed in here. It's filled with sweaty men," I'm scolded when I follow apprentice Denise Lee from Mr Welch's bus to the Kenilworth racecourse jockey room.
Lee is the only girl now at the SA Jockey Academy. Since the 2009 intake, every other woman has dropped out before the end of her five-year term. Plenty of boys leave every year, too, but there are more of them.
There are already 10 girls on next year's waiting list, but Charles Grey, academy marketing manager, says they favour male applicants. "Girls don't cut it in this game. Horse racing isn't 'ladies first'. There's no time for make-up, hairdos, or falling pregnant. You will be bitten, kicked, bucked off and hurt, whether you like it or not."
Tex Lerena, national manager of the South African Jockeys' Association, says no one has blocked women from horse racing, but: "They can't perform for a full 30 days because of their 'womanly thing'. Put a woman and a man in a boxing ring and the guy will have the edge. That's just how it is. No man wants his daughter on a racehorse." Lerena's uncle was a jockey. His son is a jockey. He was a jockey too. Retired at 37.
Another retired jock turned academy man adds that women "lose their nerve" on the racecourse. I ask him if he ever lost to a woman. He laughs. "Yes. It's embarrassing."
Although still in the minority, women jocks fare better overseas; look at UK racing sensation Hayley Turner. Before 1993, a woman couldn't even get a jockey licence in South Africa, so the first girl on our turf was an American, Kathy Kusner.
Things changed 20 years ago when Genevieve Michel, then 14, banged on the academy gates. Denied. She went back four times until they said: very well. They took blood tests, made her sprint up stairs, measured her shin bone.
A retired jockey told Michel - the academy's first female apprentice since it opened its doors 35 years earlier - "Succeed and we'll build a girls' dormitory. Fail and we won't accept any more girls."
Michel, now 35, says it was like walking into hell. "You pick up horse shit with your bare hands. You run from stable to stable until the last horse is finished. Then you do it again the next day. It was in my blood, being a jockey. You have to want it. This isn't about pretty horses. It's hard labour."
She dropped the pitch of her voice. She lifted weights. "Horse racing is a man's world. Always has been. Out there, you grow a pair of balls. I was sure the jocks wanted to do me in. I was pissing on their territory, trying to do something that had never been done. I'd be pushed up against a rail in a race. They didn't give two hoots. It was always, 'Watch where you're going, bitch.' After three years, I was one of them."
Her horse bucked. That's the last thing she remembers before she woke up in hospital. It seemed surreal, this surgeon telling her: "It's the end of your career." It took a year before she could stand to watch anyone race. A cross conceals the scar where she broke her neck. "God has other plans for you," a pastor told her.
Before her accident, Michel raced in the J&B Met: the first woman to do so. The academy built the girls' dormitory.
Nadine Rapson, 33, recalls limping up those dormitory steps after a day of training. She left home at 15 to join the academy. A rider since five, she had to be retrained. It was like breaking in a horse. "I was used to riding in a regular saddle with my feet down, not tucked under my chin."
She rode 30 horses every day. She got fit. "It's about skill. I don't care how strong you are. If half-a-ton wants to argue with you, who do you think will win?" Some horses prefer what's called "soft hands" and only run for girls, says Rapson, who was often put on the "dillies" - mad horses. "Sometimes empathy goes further than a thrashing."
After just three months, Rapson rode her first race. "You're a 15-year-old girl up against men who were racing before you were born." She grew up.
"A jock's life is physical and mental torture. You work yourself to the bone looking after those horses, only to watch someone else win on them on race day. Promises are broken. You fall and break bones. And then you get that chance, and you ride that winner, and you get up and do it all again. I've loved horses since I knew what a horse was."
And she did get up, again and again, even after she bashed her skull in a fall and forgot her own name. A trainer warned her not to come asking for rides. "I won't be the one who kills a mother."
But it's the race rides that pay the bills. "If you don't make it as a jockey, if you're injured and can't ride anymore, you're screwed, because this is all you've ever known," says Rapson.
Getting the race rides is half the battle. "People would say, 'Oh, you're a jockey. Do girls even do that? When did you and your horse last race?' I'd tell them that we don't own horses. We just ride them, if we're lucky. I'd run second in a race and I'd be pulled off because the owner said, 'If it had had a guy on, it would have won'. Too bad if the horse is mad or slow or both. If you want the work, you ride it."
All is equal on the racecourse. If the jocks called her "bitch", Rapson says, they also called each other "bastard". Besides, she swore back.
Some women quote trainers who said, "I'll give you a ride if you ride me". "You can keep your bloody ride," was one woman's reply.
"It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman," says Lerena. "If you're on a good horse, you'll win." But first you have to get the good horses. "Lucky breaks. That's what these girls need," says a trainer. Sounds like the name of a horse.
Not all jockeys are small. Lisa "Iron Lady" Prestwood isn't, I discover when I meet her at her home. Soft hands? No. Hers are calloused.
"You can't be a bunny-hugger," she says. "I wouldn't let the horse get the upper hand. I could never be as strong as the men, so I had to outsmart them."
She shows me a photograph of herself astride a gelding. "That's Al Nitak. He was a raving lunatic. Men were scared to ride him." Mad horses. I've heard about those.
In South Africa, you can't get higher than a Grade 1 race. Prestwood, now 42, won two on Al Nitak, a 66-to-1 long shot. Down the straight, you'd see the colours of her silks blur in the dust as she hunkered over his stretched neck.
"They told you we leave because of babies? Where's my whip? I could think of nothing better than my son shouting, 'Go, Mum!' at the winning post."
By the time illness ended Prestwood's decade-long career, she had beaten all the country's top sprinters and male jocks.
Success didn't come easily. "They said I was too light for light work and too heavy for fast work," she says. "I'd walk into a trainer's ring, tip my hat and say, 'Morning sir, may I take a horse for you?' And he'd say: 'No thank you'. You can be as tough as the next guy. The men in this country still aren't open to us. Guys battle too. Yes, it's harder for girls, but you suck it up or get out."
When she started out in the '90s, there was no women's changing room at the racecourse. She changed in a toilet cubicle. "I was told to go back to the kitchen where I belong. Eventually they realised I wasn't leaving. They called me a bitch. They were right. It's not about being liked. This game is about winning. Nothing else."
I ask her about riding mad Al Nitak and she crouches in her living room, reliving those races. "We're at the 400m finish and I tap it, tap it. Come on, come on!" She thwacks her old stick against the couch. "Go, go, go! I stretch it further, further, and at the winning post it must stop. That's when the race is finished."
She sits, sips her tea. Then she says after a pause, her German shepherd resting its head in her lap, "You have to be born with it."
"With what?" I ask.
"The will to win."
Michel is a mother now and races mountain bikes. Prestwood trains dogs. Rapson fractured her back for the second time. She is now boarded. She isn't sure if she'll be able to race again.
Denise Lee hopes to qualify this year.
The ride of her life
07 July 2013 - 02:02
BY LEIGH-ANNE HUNTER
SOLE SURVIVOR: Denise Lee, the only female apprentice now in training at a jockey academy in South Africa
Lifestyle Magazine
To date, no woman jockey has ridden in the Durban July - and not because girls lack talent. Leigh-Anne Hunter investigates the extreme, punishing, male-dominated world of horse racing
There's something about the way Mr Welch knots his tie that makes me wonder if he ever raced horses. Yes, he was a jockey, he says from behind the steering wheel of the jockey academy bus. Retired at 28.
Mr Welch drives apprentices to races. He's driving four now. Gruelling career jockeys have, he tells me. Back still gives him trouble. "Takes a toll on your body. Most guys don't stay long. You get tired."
I ask him if he knows of the woman jockey. That's right: the woman jockey. There are more than 100 of the male kind.
"Justine King?" She was one of his appies. Just qualified. "Tough sport for a girl. Haven't been many. Lisa ... what is it? Prestwood. She did all right. But most girls don't stay long. They have babies." Mr Welch straightens his tie.
Tough sport for girls. One reveals: "This other jock, hey, he punched me in the ribs after a race. So I broke his nose." Since then, she says, she was never hassled again.
An estimated 15 South African women have raced locally in the past two decades, none in the Durban July.
"You aren't allowed in here. It's filled with sweaty men," I'm scolded when I follow apprentice Denise Lee from Mr Welch's bus to the Kenilworth racecourse jockey room.
Lee is the only girl now at the SA Jockey Academy. Since the 2009 intake, every other woman has dropped out before the end of her five-year term. Plenty of boys leave every year, too, but there are more of them.
There are already 10 girls on next year's waiting list, but Charles Grey, academy marketing manager, says they favour male applicants. "Girls don't cut it in this game. Horse racing isn't 'ladies first'. There's no time for make-up, hairdos, or falling pregnant. You will be bitten, kicked, bucked off and hurt, whether you like it or not."
Tex Lerena, national manager of the South African Jockeys' Association, says no one has blocked women from horse racing, but: "They can't perform for a full 30 days because of their 'womanly thing'. Put a woman and a man in a boxing ring and the guy will have the edge. That's just how it is. No man wants his daughter on a racehorse." Lerena's uncle was a jockey. His son is a jockey. He was a jockey too. Retired at 37.
Another retired jock turned academy man adds that women "lose their nerve" on the racecourse. I ask him if he ever lost to a woman. He laughs. "Yes. It's embarrassing."
Although still in the minority, women jocks fare better overseas; look at UK racing sensation Hayley Turner. Before 1993, a woman couldn't even get a jockey licence in South Africa, so the first girl on our turf was an American, Kathy Kusner.
Things changed 20 years ago when Genevieve Michel, then 14, banged on the academy gates. Denied. She went back four times until they said: very well. They took blood tests, made her sprint up stairs, measured her shin bone.
A retired jockey told Michel - the academy's first female apprentice since it opened its doors 35 years earlier - "Succeed and we'll build a girls' dormitory. Fail and we won't accept any more girls."
Michel, now 35, says it was like walking into hell. "You pick up horse shit with your bare hands. You run from stable to stable until the last horse is finished. Then you do it again the next day. It was in my blood, being a jockey. You have to want it. This isn't about pretty horses. It's hard labour."
She dropped the pitch of her voice. She lifted weights. "Horse racing is a man's world. Always has been. Out there, you grow a pair of balls. I was sure the jocks wanted to do me in. I was pissing on their territory, trying to do something that had never been done. I'd be pushed up against a rail in a race. They didn't give two hoots. It was always, 'Watch where you're going, bitch.' After three years, I was one of them."
Her horse bucked. That's the last thing she remembers before she woke up in hospital. It seemed surreal, this surgeon telling her: "It's the end of your career." It took a year before she could stand to watch anyone race. A cross conceals the scar where she broke her neck. "God has other plans for you," a pastor told her.
Before her accident, Michel raced in the J&B Met: the first woman to do so. The academy built the girls' dormitory.
Nadine Rapson, 33, recalls limping up those dormitory steps after a day of training. She left home at 15 to join the academy. A rider since five, she had to be retrained. It was like breaking in a horse. "I was used to riding in a regular saddle with my feet down, not tucked under my chin."
She rode 30 horses every day. She got fit. "It's about skill. I don't care how strong you are. If half-a-ton wants to argue with you, who do you think will win?" Some horses prefer what's called "soft hands" and only run for girls, says Rapson, who was often put on the "dillies" - mad horses. "Sometimes empathy goes further than a thrashing."
After just three months, Rapson rode her first race. "You're a 15-year-old girl up against men who were racing before you were born." She grew up.
"A jock's life is physical and mental torture. You work yourself to the bone looking after those horses, only to watch someone else win on them on race day. Promises are broken. You fall and break bones. And then you get that chance, and you ride that winner, and you get up and do it all again. I've loved horses since I knew what a horse was."
And she did get up, again and again, even after she bashed her skull in a fall and forgot her own name. A trainer warned her not to come asking for rides. "I won't be the one who kills a mother."
But it's the race rides that pay the bills. "If you don't make it as a jockey, if you're injured and can't ride anymore, you're screwed, because this is all you've ever known," says Rapson.
Getting the race rides is half the battle. "People would say, 'Oh, you're a jockey. Do girls even do that? When did you and your horse last race?' I'd tell them that we don't own horses. We just ride them, if we're lucky. I'd run second in a race and I'd be pulled off because the owner said, 'If it had had a guy on, it would have won'. Too bad if the horse is mad or slow or both. If you want the work, you ride it."
All is equal on the racecourse. If the jocks called her "bitch", Rapson says, they also called each other "bastard". Besides, she swore back.
Some women quote trainers who said, "I'll give you a ride if you ride me". "You can keep your bloody ride," was one woman's reply.
"It doesn't matter if you're a man or woman," says Lerena. "If you're on a good horse, you'll win." But first you have to get the good horses. "Lucky breaks. That's what these girls need," says a trainer. Sounds like the name of a horse.
Not all jockeys are small. Lisa "Iron Lady" Prestwood isn't, I discover when I meet her at her home. Soft hands? No. Hers are calloused.
"You can't be a bunny-hugger," she says. "I wouldn't let the horse get the upper hand. I could never be as strong as the men, so I had to outsmart them."
She shows me a photograph of herself astride a gelding. "That's Al Nitak. He was a raving lunatic. Men were scared to ride him." Mad horses. I've heard about those.
In South Africa, you can't get higher than a Grade 1 race. Prestwood, now 42, won two on Al Nitak, a 66-to-1 long shot. Down the straight, you'd see the colours of her silks blur in the dust as she hunkered over his stretched neck.
"They told you we leave because of babies? Where's my whip? I could think of nothing better than my son shouting, 'Go, Mum!' at the winning post."
By the time illness ended Prestwood's decade-long career, she had beaten all the country's top sprinters and male jocks.
Success didn't come easily. "They said I was too light for light work and too heavy for fast work," she says. "I'd walk into a trainer's ring, tip my hat and say, 'Morning sir, may I take a horse for you?' And he'd say: 'No thank you'. You can be as tough as the next guy. The men in this country still aren't open to us. Guys battle too. Yes, it's harder for girls, but you suck it up or get out."
When she started out in the '90s, there was no women's changing room at the racecourse. She changed in a toilet cubicle. "I was told to go back to the kitchen where I belong. Eventually they realised I wasn't leaving. They called me a bitch. They were right. It's not about being liked. This game is about winning. Nothing else."
I ask her about riding mad Al Nitak and she crouches in her living room, reliving those races. "We're at the 400m finish and I tap it, tap it. Come on, come on!" She thwacks her old stick against the couch. "Go, go, go! I stretch it further, further, and at the winning post it must stop. That's when the race is finished."
She sits, sips her tea. Then she says after a pause, her German shepherd resting its head in her lap, "You have to be born with it."
"With what?" I ask.
"The will to win."
Michel is a mother now and races mountain bikes. Prestwood trains dogs. Rapson fractured her back for the second time. She is now boarded. She isn't sure if she'll be able to race again.
Denise Lee hopes to qualify this year.
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- Mark Sham
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Re: Re:NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
Moodley and Hyde jumped the gun again…
Was this passed byRules committee, was it discussed with jockeys, or trainers or SANTA ??
If anyone should be getting an allowance it should go to the real battling jockeys. Look at pg 3 and 4 of the NHA statistics and see if those “male” jockeys are making a living? They aren’t the best but an allowance would see them getting a few more rides each.
Even the work riders need looking at. The top 7 are like pros and win the majority of those races by getting the best rides. Yes, they’ve earned that right but. If they were on the same type of allowance as appies it would allow more to improve their riding and lifestyles.
Was this passed byRules committee, was it discussed with jockeys, or trainers or SANTA ??
If anyone should be getting an allowance it should go to the real battling jockeys. Look at pg 3 and 4 of the NHA statistics and see if those “male” jockeys are making a living? They aren’t the best but an allowance would see them getting a few more rides each.
Even the work riders need looking at. The top 7 are like pros and win the majority of those races by getting the best rides. Yes, they’ve earned that right but. If they were on the same type of allowance as appies it would allow more to improve their riding and lifestyles.
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- Muhtiman
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Re: Re:NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
.....shoo eish eina....looks like the knives are out for Moodley ...as according to many of the comments in the SP on this announcement.....apparently there was no consultation with any other stakeholders....:ohmy:
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- Craig Eudey
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
I know Rachel better than anyone in racing. For the 1st 2 yrs or so she rode only for me before branching out to Wendy Whitehead and Michael Miller once she had learnt the basics, got confidence etc. She is now an extremely confident and hard working apprentice and I believe that the last thing she would want is to have a 1,5kg advantage. She is winning without it and would hate everyone to say it is because of that advantage. That is my opinion of this situation.
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- Bob Brogan
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Re: NHRA Female Jockey permanent sex allowance.
2 years 10 months ago
PRESS RELEASE
RULE 54.14 – NHA EXPLAINS THE RATIONALE
With effect from 1 August 2022, Rule 54.14 is amended as follows:
54.2 ALTERATIONS IN THE WEIGHTS
54.14 OWNERS or TRAINERS may claim and are responsible for the claiming of an APPRENTICE and female sex allowance in any RACE, except any RACE specified to preclude APPRENTICE and female sex allowances, for the RACE MEETING concerned. The APPRENTICE allowance shall be 4Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden his 20th winner; thereafter the allowance shall be 2.5Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden his 40th winner and thereafter 1.5Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE rides his 50th winner. In the case of a female APPRENTICE, the allowance shall be 4Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden her 20th winner; thereafter the allowance shall be 3Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden her 40th winner and thereafter 2Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE rides her 50th winner. Thereafter there shall be a permanent female sex allowance of 1.5Kg for the remainder of her riding career.
The first viewpoints to the fact that in all elite sports, female athletes are at a physical disadvantage. While recognising that physical strength is not the be all and end all in racing and that the ability of the horse, technical expertise and race management are all major factors, the difference between winning and losing often rests on fine margins and the physical element cannot be ignored.
To discuss strength then we should acknowledge that pound-for-pound muscle in men and women has almost the same strength. The crucial variable is the quantity of muscle on the frame of both sexes – not the quality of that muscle.
Testosterone is the hormone crucial to building muscle on the bodies of both sexes. Men typically produce 10 times more testosterone than women, hence building more muscle on their bodies. However, in a career that often forces men to keep their weight artificially low the strength levels between a very lightweight man versus a physically fit woman with good nutrition could be much more similar than you might typically find in other sports.
Research has shown that males have ten times more testosterone than females and demonstrate a 10 -12% performance gap between elite men vs elite women. However, this performance gap is based on maximum power output in non-weight category athletes where both muscle mass and fat mass are not managed within small margins. When looking at the pound to pound of muscle between elite males and females in endurance sports where muscles are small and lean and body fat is low, performance gaps in strength between genders become smaller. However, differences in VO2max (maximal oxygen consumption) still exist between male and female athletes at endurance levels.
The core issue is the lack of opportunities for female jockeys.
There are two schools of thought as to why this is the case. The counter argument is that female riders have proved to be the equal of men when given the chance but have been denied equality of opportunity in terms of numbers and quality of rides by an anti-female bias that has prevented female jockeys from progressing up the ranks.
In recent years, there has been much progress in the understanding of what makes a good jockey. There has been a move away from the view that it’s purely about strength, and a more realistic view that multiple skills of balance, agility and the ability to read a race – otherwise known as good horsemanship or horsewomanship. We believe men and women have these skills in equal measure.
Giving women jockeys a 1.5Kg allowance could prove to be a great opportunity if it means owners and trainers put more females on their horses in races. This is because they will gain important ‘match practice’, which every jockey needs to develop their race riding skills. However, this could equally be a regressive step if it entrenches the view that women are not as good as male jockeys.
In France, taken at face value, the headline figures suggest, that in terms of meeting the objective of providing more opportunities for female riders, the allowance has been a resounding success. A year after the allowance was introduced, the number of rides offered to female jockeys in France increased from about 6% to 16% and the winning strike rate from under 5% to just over 9% This compares to an overall winning strike rate for male jockeys of 9.78%. In light of these statistics, there would appear to be little doubt that France Galop has been proved right in introducing the allowance.
Whilst acknowledging that the overall numbers of female rides has increased, there is still a discrepancy in the quality of rides being offered. It is pointed out that opportunities still remain limited for female riders in the better-quality races in France and the weight allowance has not had the same impact on providing equal opportunity as it has at the lower levels of racing.
Looking at the South African context and the transformation in terms of female riders, the picture is extremely bleak. Much of this issue is being laid squarely at the doors of the South African Jockey Academy.
When one considers the topic of transformation in the South African context, we just need to look at the jockey log and see the number of jockeys from previously disadvantaged backgrounds who rank it the top numbers of achieving jockeys.
If one looks at the number of female jockeys that the Academy has attempted to train, we do not believe that the statement above is altogether correct and perhaps there are other questions that need to be discussed as to why the same success in transformation, that has been achieved at previously disadvantaged groups, the same transformation success has not been achieved within the female jockeys. Opportunities?!
Since 1988 there have been 41 female apprentices who have been accepted into the Academy, of which 12 have qualified. The average lifespan of female jockeys is 8 years with a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 14 years. The average lifespan of male jockeys is in excess of 30 years.
Based on the above, and in order to ensure transformation of the jockeys ranks, the 1.5Kg will hopefully have the desired effect of growing the female participation in our jockeys ranks in South African and thereby creating sustainability of their participation.
This amendment has followed due process, which includes ample consultation, and it must be reiterated that in terms of the Constitution and the Rules of the NHA the National Board has the ultimate authority to sign, approve and promulgate any rules amendments.
This is part of a 5-year plan of a whole range of transformational initiatives to attract, promote and retain female jockeys, amongst other strategies.
Enquiries:
Vee Moodley
Chief Executive
RULE 54.14 – NHA EXPLAINS THE RATIONALE
With effect from 1 August 2022, Rule 54.14 is amended as follows:
54.2 ALTERATIONS IN THE WEIGHTS
54.14 OWNERS or TRAINERS may claim and are responsible for the claiming of an APPRENTICE and female sex allowance in any RACE, except any RACE specified to preclude APPRENTICE and female sex allowances, for the RACE MEETING concerned. The APPRENTICE allowance shall be 4Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden his 20th winner; thereafter the allowance shall be 2.5Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden his 40th winner and thereafter 1.5Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE rides his 50th winner. In the case of a female APPRENTICE, the allowance shall be 4Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden her 20th winner; thereafter the allowance shall be 3Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE has ridden her 40th winner and thereafter 2Kg until the end of the RACE MEETING in which the APPRENTICE rides her 50th winner. Thereafter there shall be a permanent female sex allowance of 1.5Kg for the remainder of her riding career.
The first viewpoints to the fact that in all elite sports, female athletes are at a physical disadvantage. While recognising that physical strength is not the be all and end all in racing and that the ability of the horse, technical expertise and race management are all major factors, the difference between winning and losing often rests on fine margins and the physical element cannot be ignored.
To discuss strength then we should acknowledge that pound-for-pound muscle in men and women has almost the same strength. The crucial variable is the quantity of muscle on the frame of both sexes – not the quality of that muscle.
Testosterone is the hormone crucial to building muscle on the bodies of both sexes. Men typically produce 10 times more testosterone than women, hence building more muscle on their bodies. However, in a career that often forces men to keep their weight artificially low the strength levels between a very lightweight man versus a physically fit woman with good nutrition could be much more similar than you might typically find in other sports.
Research has shown that males have ten times more testosterone than females and demonstrate a 10 -12% performance gap between elite men vs elite women. However, this performance gap is based on maximum power output in non-weight category athletes where both muscle mass and fat mass are not managed within small margins. When looking at the pound to pound of muscle between elite males and females in endurance sports where muscles are small and lean and body fat is low, performance gaps in strength between genders become smaller. However, differences in VO2max (maximal oxygen consumption) still exist between male and female athletes at endurance levels.
The core issue is the lack of opportunities for female jockeys.
There are two schools of thought as to why this is the case. The counter argument is that female riders have proved to be the equal of men when given the chance but have been denied equality of opportunity in terms of numbers and quality of rides by an anti-female bias that has prevented female jockeys from progressing up the ranks.
In recent years, there has been much progress in the understanding of what makes a good jockey. There has been a move away from the view that it’s purely about strength, and a more realistic view that multiple skills of balance, agility and the ability to read a race – otherwise known as good horsemanship or horsewomanship. We believe men and women have these skills in equal measure.
Giving women jockeys a 1.5Kg allowance could prove to be a great opportunity if it means owners and trainers put more females on their horses in races. This is because they will gain important ‘match practice’, which every jockey needs to develop their race riding skills. However, this could equally be a regressive step if it entrenches the view that women are not as good as male jockeys.
In France, taken at face value, the headline figures suggest, that in terms of meeting the objective of providing more opportunities for female riders, the allowance has been a resounding success. A year after the allowance was introduced, the number of rides offered to female jockeys in France increased from about 6% to 16% and the winning strike rate from under 5% to just over 9% This compares to an overall winning strike rate for male jockeys of 9.78%. In light of these statistics, there would appear to be little doubt that France Galop has been proved right in introducing the allowance.
Whilst acknowledging that the overall numbers of female rides has increased, there is still a discrepancy in the quality of rides being offered. It is pointed out that opportunities still remain limited for female riders in the better-quality races in France and the weight allowance has not had the same impact on providing equal opportunity as it has at the lower levels of racing.
Looking at the South African context and the transformation in terms of female riders, the picture is extremely bleak. Much of this issue is being laid squarely at the doors of the South African Jockey Academy.
When one considers the topic of transformation in the South African context, we just need to look at the jockey log and see the number of jockeys from previously disadvantaged backgrounds who rank it the top numbers of achieving jockeys.
If one looks at the number of female jockeys that the Academy has attempted to train, we do not believe that the statement above is altogether correct and perhaps there are other questions that need to be discussed as to why the same success in transformation, that has been achieved at previously disadvantaged groups, the same transformation success has not been achieved within the female jockeys. Opportunities?!
Since 1988 there have been 41 female apprentices who have been accepted into the Academy, of which 12 have qualified. The average lifespan of female jockeys is 8 years with a minimum of 5 years and a maximum of 14 years. The average lifespan of male jockeys is in excess of 30 years.
Based on the above, and in order to ensure transformation of the jockeys ranks, the 1.5Kg will hopefully have the desired effect of growing the female participation in our jockeys ranks in South African and thereby creating sustainability of their participation.
This amendment has followed due process, which includes ample consultation, and it must be reiterated that in terms of the Constitution and the Rules of the NHA the National Board has the ultimate authority to sign, approve and promulgate any rules amendments.
This is part of a 5-year plan of a whole range of transformational initiatives to attract, promote and retain female jockeys, amongst other strategies.
Enquiries:
Vee Moodley
Chief Executive
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