Alex Greaves spoke to WiR Committee Member Kimberley Priori.
On the 30th anniversary of her Epsom Derby debut, trailblazing ex-professional flat jockey Alex Greaves talks making her mark the world over and that ever-important neck strap
“Nabbing the race from the favourite for the Concorde Cup in South Africa as the crowd chanted “Lady! lady! lady!” – astonished that it was a woman was on the back of the horse – that memory still really tickles me…”
Harare racetrack in Zimbabwe, 1992 sets the picture in a pre-Apartheid South Africa at an exorbitantly attended meeting.
That trailblazing jockey Alex Greaves crystallised her most encountered historical moment as the first female jockey to ride in the Epsom Derby may not arrive as news to some. Rather, it was prefaced by some of her more levelling appointments as a world-travelling professional rider.
South Africa, recalled then as the fruit bowl of the world, an agricultural powerhouse with its lush greenery and heady, feverish climate, held undertones of a tangibly tense atmosphere and fortress mentality.
But it proved alluring for Alex, as she became the first licensed female jockey in the territory with a booking in the Concorde Cup.
“You’d get changed in restrooms, the male showers, wherever was suitable. It was certainly not purpose-built for a female presence there. But I just remember the stands being absolutely packed to the rafters, as the South African racetracks were in those days. They really are and were all about their racing.”
Held to celebrate the racetrack’s centenary year, it provided the spotlight she would become accustomed to in time.
“I beat Muis (Michael, multiple champion South African jockey) Roberts a short head on my horse There’s Magic, and it was just this uproar – to top that, they then saw that I was a woman!” she laughs.
Alex Greaves, the first female rider in the Epsom Derby, the 1000 Guineas, the first female apprentice jockey to ride out her full 3-pound claim, recorded a brace of approximately 300 winners at close of her riding career.
Her principal feat was becoming the first woman to ride a Group One winner in Britain, when she dead-heated for first in the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes at York on Ya Malak, trained by David Nicholls.
“There certainly wasn’t the professionalism and structure that there is now. But you just got on with it. I’ve always had that Yorkshire mentality, and I was simply doing my job” she instructs.
“In the end, you’re in a male-dominated sport and you have to fight your corner. I’m also totally stubborn and if I believed in something, I didn’t give an inch.”Back to Epsom.
Greaves made the international press when partnering resolute 500-1 outsider Portuguese Lil, the filly trained by husband David Nicholls in the 1996 edition of the Epsom Derby. Further, the pair had also campaigned in 1000 Guineas, adding to her series of firsts.
This feat led by example that the qualifying and very delight in participation of an Epsom Derby, would open the door for female representation across elite race-riding as we know it today.
“I was there to enjoy it, plain and simple. I thought “I’m gonna make the most of this experience” and I did. On paper, it was no different to any other race, other than it was over a distance I’d never ridden over and the build-up was obviously greater than anything I’d ever known in my career up to that point” admits Alex.
“If you hit the undulations right, it would be make things a lot easier for you. But of course, you didn’t make a big deal out of it just because of the anticipation surrounding the race. It was just the same scenario, as if the Southern lads were coming up North to ride at Ripon, who’d never ridden there before.”
In truth, she has perpetually charted new ground since she began as a horsewoman. The sheer capacity to hold a horse on the gallops as a tender 12-year-old riding out, would have set her apart.
“A real judge of a race and someone who I really learned from was (trainer) David Barron. I was his apprentice jockey and he really dealt me some great opportunities. You need that as a young person in the sport, male or female, so he really made a mark on my career.”
Greaves maintains it was her horsemanship that kept her on side with more precarious runners in the string.
A poster boy for the handler known for his campaigning of top-tier sprinters, the David Nicholls-trained Proud Native would consistently run over his assigned ability, including his win in the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes and a reserve in the coveted Group 1 Hong Kong Sprint. You might owe this to Alex’s rapport and perseverance with the plainly quirky individual.
“Proud Native was not a straightforward ride. He was a Peter Savill-owned horse, who was another great supporter of ours. The lads just didn’t want to get on him, but I had no qualms about riding him everyday and I really managed to get a tune out of him.”
“When we’d go racing, he needed a Chifney bit at the start and would do a lap after you tried to pull him up.”
His plight in keeping sound points to the fact he would have given everything to his racing owing to Alex.
“When I rode him at Goodwood, I just remember to keep on gripping my neck strap. But when he knew you had confidence in him, he would bounce off it and give it back to you in spades, and because of that, he was great fun.”
She is not pontifical when dealt with the question on her counsel to the new wave of professional lady jockeys. Her ‘straight as an arrow’ demeanour softens; Greaves is instead sympathetic in her view of the next generation.
“It’s a very underrated fact, but a race isn’t always won and lost in the last one hundred yards. People forget that, especially the armchair jockeys who see one tiny perspective from their television” opines Alex.
“There are the other jockeys’ manoeuvres, the other runners and so many more factors a jockey has to contend with, in order to position their horse from the break to that particular point in the race.”
It would be remiss not to touch on the meaning of her legacy.
“I miss the camaraderie of riding professionally, but I still ride out everyday. Keeping my weight down was an issue, so I don’t miss the lack of eating and drinking. And I never want to see a sweatsuit ever again.”
“It’s nice to see that professional female jockeys have more opportunities, that they are more accepted in the weighing room and that there is more structure in place like jockeys’ agents for example, so that you can get on with the riding. It’s great to have broken down some barriers in that sense.”
When people talk about her legacy, what does she hope they say?
In a super coolly coded retort. “The girl did good.”
Quite.
Alex was a guest on Luck on Sunday on 31st May. You can watch the interview here: Alex Greaves on Luck on Sunday
