Nina Carberry© Photo Healy Racing
Racing is so obsessed with success that gender is mostly irrelevant - except it seems in relation to jockeys. The consensus appears to be that female jockeys can still face prejudice. But it's worth betting that when the inevitable occurs and an exceptional female riding talent does emerge from Ireland the fact of her sex will mean nothing. Because even the most Neanderthal of racing males values an edge over the opposition much more than any stupid prejudice.
Asserting such inevitability invites accusations of smugness. And clearly any condition or circumstance that actively discourages a woman in racing should be exposed and damned as the ignorance it is. But so many realities, social, sporting, even statistical, mean it is surely only a question of time before a woman is champion jockey.
Because there isn't some deep-rooted sexism in racing: all that matters to the vast majority is passing the post first, and the talent to accomplish that is all that ultimately matters. Race, creed or sex is irrelevant. Talent is talent, and special talent simply can't be ignored. It may take a unique talent to become a champion but champions are supposed to be different.
In this corner's time in the game, one outstanding female talent has emerged in Ireland - Nina Carberry. And from her first ever racecourse appearance, at the Curragh as a sixteen year old in 2001, she has been regarded by her rivals in the jockey's room, owners and trainers, and any race-fan with a working pair of eyes as an outstanding jockey, not an outstanding female jockey.
Enda Bolger once declared that whereas Ruby Walsh would be his first pick, he would opt for Nina Carberry ahead of anyone else in any circumstance, a verdict made by a cool professional eye which in terms of judging jockeys trumps most within the industry.
Not surprisingly Carberry has elected to maintain her amateur status throughout her career. The reality of turning professional in the National Hunt game, with its inevitable injuries, made that something of a no-brainer. But if she had turned pro, Carberry's sex would have been irrelevant to all but the most misogynistic of morons. She would simply have been another top amateur turning to the paid ranks.
The hard statistical reality of one fall in every twenty rides over jumps makes it more likely the flat is where a singular female figure will ultimately emerge to regard championships and classic winners as no more than her due. It is already a reality around the world, in the US and New Zealand especially.
Closer to home, though, the accusation is that a glass-ceiling must exist because no woman has yet made the sort of breakthrough that say Julie Krone or Rosie Napravnik has in America.
But there is more than a trace of tokenism in that assumption: Napravnik is used so widely by top trainers simply because she's a better option than most men. That's about individual talent, not gender. And has a similar professional talent emerged in Europe to rank with Napravnik, some exceptional but overlooked performer discriminated against because of her sex? I don't think so.
Take gender out of the equation and ask if Hayley Turner has not made the most of her talent? Or Cathy Gannon? The answer has to be yes they have. These women are good professional jockeys and it is professional courtesy to ignore their gender and dispassionately point out how it stretches credulity to suggest it is prejudice which has prevented them from taking a place among the absolute elite.
These are jockeys making the most of their considerable abilities and entitled to be viewed as such.
The argument goes that more role-models would be welcome if more young women are to pursue riding careers and that's correct. But the basis of that should be their talent and not their sex. There have even been positive-discrimination suggestions about weight allowances to negate the hoary old chestnut about women lacking strength compared to men. There's an inherent condescension to that however that doesn't sit well. Discrimination is still discrimination.
Carberry has never needed allowances made for her. Talent never does. There may be more than a few blowhard dinosaurs in racing but rare are the idiots prepared to cut off their noses to spite the chance of a winner. There's plenty that is stupid within racing but prejudice against women riders is surely not a biggie.
In fact for all its self conscious toughness, racing loves fashion, relishes youth and novelty, is always looking for the next big thing. When that next big thing is a rare female riding talent, it will be news for a short while and then her gender will quite properly be forgotten. It can't come too soon.
Some more interesting speculation about the possible makeup of any new Horse Racing Ireland board continues with the impression growing that Simon Coveney will be more than some detached bystander if suggestions of an increase in ministerial appointments are correct. There also appears to a head of steam building up about the new Horse Racing Ireland Amendment Bill presenting the Minister for Agriculture with the financial set-up he wants in terms of administering racing.
The idea though that it's a done-deal may be wide off the mark. The Bill may pass into legislation alright but there are more than a few murmurs among Turf Club insiders that the Minister's proposed ideas for how revenue is handled could be wide-open to a legal challenge. And depending on who you talk to, there may even be an appetite for such a scrap. Yet again there's nothing like money to concentrate minds.
The sad death of Pierce Molony last week concentrated attention on the importance of Thurles racecourse to racing in this country through the winter months. It's hard to know what the industry would do without Thurles for three months of every year when the track's remarkable resilience often manages to keep the show going almost on its own. No one could ever describe the place as luxurious but Thurles, under Molony's expert guidance, was always about substance over style: long may it continue.
And finally, Alvisio Villie is on course to run in this Sunday's Deloitte Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown. The E150,000 Hennessy may be the feature but there are potential stars aplenty that could line up in the E90,000 hurdle which makes it something to really look forward to.
