The coming of Kah was always destined
I started working as a horse racing commentator more than 20 years ago.
The novelty of being a woman helped me get a start when Sky Racing was trying to build a female on-air presence for its launch into the great unknown of the Pay TV space.
Taking racing into people’s homes meant they had to give the wives and girlfriends of hardened punters and racing fans someone they could relate to and present the sport through a softer, more feminine lens.
For some male viewers it was a welcome change to the gender balance, and for others it was not so welcome. A few months into my tenure I accidentally picked up a handwritten letter from the fax machine in the foyer of Sky’s Frenchs Forest headquarters. Noticing the reference to my name, I couldn’t help but read it. I wish I hadn’t.
It angrily demanded that executives “get that silly sheila off the air… what does she know about racing.”
My heart sank, I knew it was probably the tip of a very large iceberg full of scepticism and contempt for a woman talking horses and racing in what had always been a male domain.
After shedding a few tears, I realised I would either have to very quickly grow a thick skin or get out of the game and walk an easier path.
I decided to keep going.
And the very thing that gave me the confidence to grab the bit between the teeth was my love of the horse and a lifetime of riding and competing with them.
I was on a horse’s back before I could even walk and I thought to myself I bet that bloke who wrote the abusive letter and those who publicly and not so publicly knocked me and whinged about me being on the air couldn’t even put a halter on a horse.
Having come from a lifetime immersed in the equestrian world where women thrived and were the majority I just couldn’t understand why women in racing were considered such an unwelcome oddity.
How was it that women could win Olympic gold medals on the back of a horse yet so much doubt prevailed about their ability to ride a racehorse?
Claims they were not strong enough was always the reasoning for opting to leg a male rider up, especially in high quality races.
Again, I questioned why brute strength was considered so advantageous. I was always taught that the best could be coaxed out of a horse gently and skilfully. If a horse trusts and likes its rider it will do its very best.
To me the anti-female jockey consensus all seemed a bit ignorant and so I always hoped that one day passionate and gifted young horse women would come along in their droves and chip away at all that absurd doubt.
After all, Gai Waterhouse and numerous other women had more than proven their skills at training them and plenty were handling them very competently for racing stables and riding green, fractious thoroughbreds effectively at track work.
Fast forward to 2015 when Michelle Payne guided Prince Of Penzance to victory in the Melbourne Cup.
That was one of the ultimate examples of a woman crashing through racing’s glass barriers and they made a movie about it.
Six years on, and along comes the riding phenomenon that is Jamie Kah, who, on Saturday at Caulfield, achieved what no other jockey, male or female, has ever been able to do in the history of Australian racing and ride 100 winners in a single season in Melbourne.
It was an extraordinary feat by Kah who has been mad about horses since she was a little girl.
To this day, most of her spare time has been spent either on them or around them.
When she’s not riding in races, she’s often at home on her farm working her own off the track thoroughbreds harbouring aspirations well beyond the racetrack to one day make it to the olympics on the back of one.
It’s this skill and belief in herself that has unquestionably seen Kah rise through the tough race riding ranks in Australia.
She brings out the best in every horse she swings a leg over. They respond well to her and stretch themselves the extra length or more to win at all levels.
Ironically on Saturday she brought up the milestone century of wins riding a horse trained by Tony McEvoy.
After the race, she herself said it couldn’t have been more fitting. You see, years ago McEvoy, whose wife Jo is a keen equestrian, recognised Kah’s gift with horses and unashamedly admits she was the much needed key to getting his team to perform better on the racetrack.
He gave her a chance. And now the rest is history.
Seizing the opportunity to truly shine is and will continue to be the catalyst for many other female riders to now do the same.
A little lost in all the theatre of Kah’s achievement on Saturday was the fact that during the same race programme another female rider had one of the best days of her career.
Alana Kelly rode a double.
Her post race analysis on the television coverage was first class. It was commentary from a young woman who really knows her horses. The daughter of a trainer, Daniel Kelly, she spoke with an innate understanding of their idiosyncrasies. In her you could detect a sense of knowledge and confidence that will no doubt see her rise to stardom as well.
During one interview she described how “inspiring” it was to ride alongside Kah.
As the saying goes, “see it, to be it”, and something tells me there’s now a tidal wave of talented female jockeys building on the horizon.
If he’s still around, I wonder what that gentleman who wrote the abusive letter to Sky Channel about a “sheila” in racing all those years ago is thinking now?