Hello all, Its interesting to see that one of the three pin up girls for the Carlisle all female racecard is riding Efistorm on Monday night, albeit at Windsor rather than Carlisle! Turner who stated "I hope this unique race night will showcase women jockeys' talent and encourage more women into racing." This begs the question, if she was really supporting the raceday wouldn't she be getting up to Carlisle to ride in the races, it surely can't be because nobody would book her? The fact of the matter is that she obviously would rather go to Windsor for just one ride on a ten year old for Conor Dore!! I think that says it all! Laura Pike was another of the female riders used in the photoshoot and she also has no rides at the Carlisle meeting. Sophie Doyle the other jockey in the photoshoot does go up to ride at Carlisle and I hope she has a successful trip and wins on one of her two rides. The fact remains that this meeting is a joke and the way Hayley is treating it with contempt shows that for me it has no place in horse racing in the UK. On a further note, its interesting to note that the claimers such as Julie Burke are much worse off on the card at Carlisle. They are unable to claim unlike the amateur jockeys. That may cost them against the likes of Cathy Gannon (who I think will have a good evening)
Hayley Turner is probably riding at Windsor for Conor Dore, to keep her foot in the door with him. He is a trainer who is booking her in a race against male jockeys, were as the trainers at Carlisle are only booking her because there are no male jockeys allowed. If she rejects the ride at Windsor then maybe he wont ask her again in the future. I agree though it does seem silly that she isn't riding, she is the most high profile lady rider around, so it is a bit of a kick in the teeth to the event
Agree lads..ill conceived concept...probobly end up in Sophie Doyle v Kirsty Milczarek punch up...that would be more entertaining tbh...
Maybe they could round up some old riders from the retirement homes for former jockeys, throw in some jumping castles, a pop concert and a poker night for topless ex strippers, to see if they can attract some new blood to the sport.
I think they have rather ruined the whole meeting by making all the heats open to ‘pro-am’ riders. A lot of the pro’s will be carrying a couple of stones of lead in their saddles because of the restructured weight scale which can’t be conducive to their mounts chances. Surely, it would have been better, in this correspondent’s opinion, to have 4 heats open to pro’s only and 2 amateur events. I definitely won’t be wagering but wouldn’t be surprised to see Amy Ryan’s class shine through and her win with both her mounts (it’s criminal that she has only been booked to ride in 2 out of the 6 heats incidentally). Carlisle should get a welter attendance but would think that would be more to do with the lovely Alexandra Burke (whom I seem to recall voting for during her ‘X Factor’ days) singing a few ditties after racing rather than the actual standard of contests run on the track!
The restructed weight scale certainly benefit the old ‘ams’ as they won 5 out of the 6 heats. No mention, as yet, of crowd numbers but I see from reports that it was probably a massive one as there were long ques to get in. How harsh where the stewards on Amy Ryan though...unbelievable! 28 days! Seems like her name can be added to those of Mr Henderson and ‘King’ Kieren that the authorities are keen to punish unjustly. As I have always maintained these people are so petty, jealous and insecure when it comes to genius and are so keen to act so harshly when confronted by it. OK, so the girl made a mistake but 28 days is ridiculous. Hopefully, she will appeal and a more ‘apt’ sentence be handed down. Remember Gerraghty only got 12 days for the far more heinous crime of taking the wrong course at Wetherby back in October ’09 (when he was set to win the race) so how they came up with 28 days is beyond me. If I’d have been the ‘judge’ Gerraghty would have got 6 months and Amy Ryan a week.
