‘Everything was groundbreaking’ – Fortescue-ThomasImage source, BBC Sport/Gillian Fortescue-ThomasImage caption, Gillian Fortescue-Thomas was the first female rider to finish a race at the Cheltenham Festival ByGideon Brooks, BBC Sport England and Marie Indge, BBC Radio WiltshirePublished1 hour agoIt says much about the strides made in the battle for equality in the saddle that a win for a female jockey at Cheltenham this week would barely register as noteworthy.It is, after all, 43 years on since Caroline Beasley became the first woman to win a race at the Festival on Eliogarty in the Foxhunters in 1983, 39 years since Gee Armytage first beat professional men on Gee A in 1987, and five since the incomparable Rachael Blackmore became top jockey at the meeting with six winners in 2021.
Then there is Khadijah Mellah and current rising star Aamilah Aswat.
Yet for all the undoubted progress made, none of the above could have happened without the pioneers who made those first hairline cracks in the glass ceiling.
Pioneers in the saddle whose stubbornness and courage enabled and smoothed the path for those who followed.
Gillian Fortescue-Thomas, now in her seventies, was one such rider despite never winning a race at the Festival.
She was, however, the first woman to complete a race, finishing second in the Cathcart Chase in 1976 on a veteran hunter called Stanhope Street.
Fortescue-Thomas had already become the first female jockey to ride a winner at Ascot as she built a relationship with the 12-year-old but Cheltenham was a step up.
“Everything was groundbreaking,” she told BBC Radio Wiltshire.
“I was just doing a job I enjoyed and doing the best I could. You don’t think about what you are doing when you are younger you just do it.
“But with hindsight, yes, it was big.”
