Category: In the News

Blaithin Murphy has been appointed as the new General Manager of Wincanton Racecourse, The Jockey Club has announced today.

Murphy, 25, joined The Jockey Club in 2021 and recently completed the trainee General Manager programme.

She will succeed Jack Parkinson who will continue as General Manager of Exeter Racecourse, a post he has held since 2017. Parkinson will focus on operational delivery of Exeter’s rapidly growing conference and events business following a handover process at Wincanton.

Blaithin Murphy said: “”I am delighted to be appointed general manager at Wincanton Racecourse. Racecourse management has always been a career ambition of mine and racing is a lifelong passion. I would like to thank everyone at The Jockey Club who has supported me so far with a special thanks to Jack Parkinson for the time and guidance he has given me.”

Nadia Powell, Small Courses Director at The Jockey Club, said: “I’m delighted to welcome Blaithin as the new General Manager of Wincanton. Her passion for racing and racecourse management is clear and I look forward to working with her to continue Wincanton’s progress in the years to come.

“I’d like to thank Jack for his dedication to Wincanton and know he will continue to maximise Exeter’s encouraging growth as a conference and events venue.”

Lucy Gurney, Chair of Women in Racing, added: “Congratulations to Blaithin on this fantastic new appointment. Blaithin is also a key part of the Women in Racing committee, volunteering her time to support the membership of the organisation and drive growth. The committee all wish Blaithin the best of luck as she commences her role at Wincanton.”

Women in Racing is delighted to re-launch its membership system using Memberful, with a new website to improve overall user experience.

This much-improved system makes it easier for our members to manage and adjust their membership, improves how we communicate with members and the new website supports easier event booking and simple applications for both the bursary and mentoring programmes.

If your membership has lapsed and you wish to re-join WiR you can join here.

If you have questions, issues or feedback please get in touch with lucy.gurney@womeninracing.co.uk

Following the end of term for some of our fantastic voluntary committee members, Women in Racing (WiR) is seeking to recruit new people to join our team:

• Do you want to support a network of brilliant women working across British horseracing?
• Do you want to play your part in helping others to succeed, through mentoring programmes, bursaries and the Racing Home programme for example?

Our committee aims to:

• Bring together a network that represents the broadest areas of the sport, with a commitment to diversity and inclusion
• Combine a range of skillsets to support and grow Women in Racing as the network recovers post-Covid19 and looks ahead to benefitting its members and the sport in future
• Support, where possible, the career development of our committee members through the varied opportunities presented by our activity.

We need members who are proactive, willing and able to juggle WiR commitments voluntarily alongside their current roles and responsibilities, and excellent team players. Specifically, we need help to look after our mentoring and bursary programmes, support and develop our membership and help us to deliver fun and engaging events for our members.

To apply, simply email lucy.gurney@womeninracing.co.uk

All applications will be responded to and considered carefully by the committee to determine the skillsets most needed by the organisation. Each term lasts three years – up to two terms maximum.

A forgotten racehorse trainer who was the first woman in the UK to be issued with a training licence in 1886 is to have a race at The QIPCO Guineas Festival renamed in her honour, The Jockey Club announces today – International Women’s Day.

Ellen Chaloner has laid in an unmarked grave in Newmarket Cemetery since her death in 1944, with much of her extraordinary life story unrecorded and forgotten with the passage of time.

But now, thanks to a campaign launched by her descendants and supported by The Jockey Club, the ‘First Lady of the Turf’ will have her name deservedly etched into the history books.

At an event hosted at The Jockey Club Rooms in Newmarket on March 6th to commemorate Ellen ahead of International Women’s Day, it was announced that the trailblazing trainer’s contribution to the sport would be marked with the permanent renaming of a race on 2000 Guineas Day, Saturday 6th May.

The campaign has also enabled the purchase of two new headstones to mark where Ellen and other members of the Chaloner family are buried in Newmarket Cemetery, and will make a contribution to Women In Racing’s Bursary Fund to support the professional development of women working in racing today.

Ellen’s family travelled from all corners of the United Kingdom and Ireland to attend the occasion, where a special episode of Stephen Wallis’ podcast, The Paddock and the Pavillion, was recorded in front of a live audience.

Among those in attendance was retired Irish Champion Jump Jockey Charlie Swan, Ellen’s great-great grandson, who said: “When I started riding my mum kept telling me that my great-great grandmother and father used to ride and train horses, but it sort of went over my head a little bit when I was that age. I didn’t really think about it.

“It’s only in the last few years that I suddenly realised where my riding talents probably came from.”

Swan added: “It’s fantastic that Ellen is getting some recognition and hopefully we’ll make it there on the day.”

During the event to honour Ellen’s place in the history of British Racing, a portrait was unveiled which will be on display at Newmarket’s Rowley Mile racecourse.

Osborne House, where Ellen trained, is now home to longstanding trainer Sir Mark Prescott who attended the event and commented: “She was a remarkable woman and she lived in some style. Osborne House, which is there and named after the family, has 10 bedrooms and the cellars are massive.”

He added: “I’m very proud of her. I always tell everybody when they look round at the stables.”

Susie Wilks, Ellen’s great granddaughter was also interviewed during the podcast and said: “She was a very formidable lady but very deaf in her later years – my mother used to say it was always quite embarrassing having conversations with her because most of the racecourse could hear!

“I believe when she was in her later years and in a wheelchair, the racecourse built a plinth for her so she could watch the racing from there.

“We are all very grateful to The Jockey Club and everyone who has made all this possible. It is very humbling and an honour to have a race named after her, especially on 2000 Guineas Day.”

Gay Kelleway, the Newmarket trainer who was the first female jockey to ever win a race at Royal Ascot in 1987, said: “It is fantastic and it’s not just an ordinary race, It’s on Guineas Day and it’s a race for fillies, so it is very appropriate.

“To name a race after her is a great privilege and we mustn’t lose our heritage in horse racing, particularly in Newmarket.”

 

Background on Ellen Chaloner:

Ellen Chaloner (nee Osborne), who died aged 98, made history by being the first woman to be granted a training permit following the death of her Derby-winning jockey and trainer husband Tom in 1886, some 80 years before the High Court gave female racehorse trainers legal recognition.

Ellen applied for permission to train the family’s string of horses herself, at which time she also had seven young children to look after. When the request was granted by The Jockey Club, then the regulator and governing body for racing, it marked a significant point in the history of the sport.

The pioneering trainer went on to have a number of successes, including at Royal Ascot when her filly Jersey Lily won the Triennial Stakes in 1887.

Though there are gaps in Ellen’s history, her family, along with historians Dr Esther Harper and Tim Cox, have pieced together much of what her life looked like. Daughter of racehorse trainer Johnny Osborne Sr, Ellen’s brother Johnny Jnr was a 12-time Classic-winning jockey who had won the Derby in 1869.

She passed away in 1944 having outlived all seven of her children.

The Ellen Chaloner Stakes:

Previously The Kilvington Stakes held at Nottingham, the race over six furlongs race for fillies aged three years and older was transferred to Newmarket in 2022. Its “handle” has now been permanently changed to The Ellen Chaloner Stakes with the permission of British Horseracing Authority’s Flat Pattern Committee and will remain in perpetuity.

Members of the Chaloner family will be present at The Rowley Mile on QIPCO 2000 Guineas Day, Saturday 6th May 2023, for the inaugural running of The Ellen Chaloner Stakes.

Headstones:

The headstones are currently being constructed and will be unveiled later this year in a private event attended by the Chaloner family.

Following the end of term for some of our fantastic voluntary committee members, Women in Racing (WiR) is seeking to recruit new people to join our team:

• Do you want to support a network of brilliant women working across British horseracing?
• Do you want to play your part in helping others to succeed, through mentoring programmes, bursaries and the Racing Home programme, for example?

Our committee aims to:

• Bring together a network that represents the broadest areas of the sport, with a commitment to diversity and inclusion
• Combine a range of skillsets to support and grow Women in Racing as the network recovers post-Covid19 and looks ahead to benefitting its members and the sport in future
• Support, where possible, the career development of our committee members through the varied opportunities presented by our activity.

We need members who are proactive, willing and able to juggle WiR commitments voluntarily alongside their current roles and responsibilities, and excellent team players. Specifically, we need help to look after our bursary programme, support and develop our membership and website and to deliver fun and engaging events for our members.

Find the current committee here: https://www.womeninracing.co.uk/about-us/

To apply, simply email info@womeninracing.co.uk by 5 August 2022, include your name, some background information and how you feel you could support and grow our membership. All applications will be responded to and considered carefully against the skillsets most needed to support WiR. Each term lasts up to three years – up to two terms maximum.

Our Careering Ahead Interview Series kick off again with a stellar line up from 14th January;

– 14th January, 7-8pm with Claudia McDougall

– 3rd Ferbruary, 7-8pm with Catch Bissett

– 17th February, 7-8pm with Suleka Varma

Head to our events page to find out more!