The Four Females of the Future?

On Monday evening Carlisle Racecourse will once again be banning the boys as it plays host for the second year to its all-female fixture. The Edinburgh Woollen Mill Ultimate Ladies Night features six races confined to lady jockeys, with five for mixed professionals and amateurs and the penultimate contest on the card being restricted to professional riders.

Last year’s inaugural meeting was a huge success, with a modern-day record crowd at the track coming out to see some of the leading lady riders in action. In celebration of this unique occasion, we focus on four of the rising female stars of the weighing room, who could be going for gold against their colleagues on Monday night.

Name: Amy Ryan                            
Age: 23
Amy is the daughter of North Yorkshire trainer, Kevin, but is already making her own name on the track, becoming one of only several female riders in this country to ride out their claim (an allowance for inexperienced jockeys). After a short stint as an amateur, which led to her being crowned leading female amateur in 2008, Amy joined the professional ranks the following year and booted home her long-time friend Advanced to victory in a prestigious handicap at Ascot. Amy currently sits in third behind Hayley Turner and Cathy Gannon amongst the females in the British Flat Jockeys Table for the 2012 Season.



Name: Leonna Mayor   
Age: 21
Former child model Leonna began to make a name for herself in the world of horse racing when part of the Dandy Nicholls operation last year, scoring on four occasions aboard the sprinter, Thunderball. She has subsequently moved to Alistair Lidderdale’s Lambourn base and has racked up seven winners in the current Flat season. Leonna’s racing hero is the great Canadian rider, Emma-Jayne Wilson (who rides in the female team at Ascot’s Shergar Cup), while she sticks to the females as she lists Black Caviar as her favourite equine star of the sport.


Name: Laura Pike
Age: 28
Laura has already overcome quite a mile stone by coming back after a four-year break from the sport to re-establish her career with Newmarket trainer David Simcock. She has ridden a brace of winners this current season and has made regular trips overseas to ride in Jersey and Hungary, where she recently took part in the Hungarian Oaks. Her immediate aim is to ride a winner in front of the Channel 4 cameras (something she very nearly did a couple of weeks ago aboard her old pal, Vainglory) and claims that she’d be a chef if she wasn’t riding horses!

 

Name: Nicole Nordblad                
Age: 17
Teenager Nicole is flying the flag for Norway, having moved over to ride in this country when she was 15. Her mother is a long-serving employee of trainer Hans Adielsson and when he took the decision to move over here two years ago, they both came to join him at his Oxfordshire base. Nicole is a graduate of the BHA Jockey Coach Pilot Scheme when she was mentored and coached by former Champion Jockey John Reid and has so far ridden five winners in the current Flat season. She lists Jim Crowley and fellow female rider, Hayley Turner as her racing heros.

 
For more information on the Carlisle Ultimate Ladies Night, CLICK HERE.