National Hunt jockey's battle to reach the top

By sosborn

In the macho world of National Hunt racing it is virtually unheard of for a woman to make it as a jockey. In a brutally frank interview Gemelle Gracey-Davison talks to Simon Osborn about her struggle to break down the final frontier in horse racing.

As she charges towards one of the massive fences in her path Gemelle Gracey-Davison knows instinctively if it's going to be a good jump or not.

"You can tell if you're in trouble as you feel the horse shortening their stride ready for it and you sense if something is wrong.

"But when it feels right there is no better feeling in the world, being on a good jumper, flying over fences is just breathtaking," she said.

"The feeling it gives is just awesome and beats any winner I've ever had on the flats."

Gracey-Davison isn't your average jump jockey. After all, she's a woman.

While the girls have been making their mark on flat racing for some time - Hayley Turner alone rode more than 100 winners last season - the macho world of the jumps is still pretty much a man only landscape.

"Girls have made it on the flat, there are about 10 or 15 girls doing it but not on the jumps," admits Gracey-Davison.

"It's a lot tougher. I think it's a strength issue and I also think there are a lot of people who don't think girls should be doing it on principle because of the dangers.

"People break their backs, riders have been paralysed so there are a lot of risks and I think that's why trainers won't put girls up on their horses."

Not that this view carries a lot of weight with Gracey-Davison, who is stubbornly refusing to curtsey to the establishment and is determined to make her way as a professional.

Daughter of trainer Zoe Davison and ex jockey Gerry, Gracey admits she has faced institutional sexism on almost a daily basis since she turned pro just over a month ago.

"I get 'you ride really well, for a girl' it's meant to be a compliment but it shouldn't be like that," she said, as we talked at her Ashurst Wood home.

"I guess, I'd rather be told that than they say 'we could tell who you were riding' but I'd rather it just wasn't an issue.

"To be fair most of the other jockeys are a pretty welcoming bunch and I get on well with them and have a chat. I think to start with they were quite cold and suspicious of me because I was 'the girl'."

But it is not only her fellow competitors who Gracey-Davison will have to win round, as she faces a constant battle to get rides from trainers who simply feel she has no right being there as well as tracks which are just not designed with female riders in mind.

"I've already seen one trainer who was giving me rides as an amateur trying to make excuses for me not to ride his horses," she confesses.

"I know it's going to be tough but I've got an agent and he has got me some outside rides. I'm lucky as I know I'll have a chance to prove myself on my mum's horses as all the owners have so far been very supportive of me."

Gracey-Davison's close relationship with her mother is behind her desire to succeed in a sport that has been part of her life since, literally, before she was born.

"Mum was still riding when she was seven months pregnant with me.

"She was very nervous at first but she loves me doing this. She is really, really supportive and having been involved with the sport for so long helps."

Growing up at her parents stables in Waterford in Southern Ireland Gracey-Davison was always surrounded by horses, and quickly developed a love for the sport as a child.

"I've been riding race horses since I was five and I had my own pony while I was growing too.

"I was brought up by people in racing and have been living in the racing world all my life.

"After my parents split up and I moved back to England with my mum I was still doing all I could and was always involved in racing.

"I'd ride out before school and after school and do the cleaning out and other things," added the 21-year-old.

As she got older Gracey-Davison started racing in all female amateur races, finishing second in the world famous International Federation of Lady Riders series.

"It was 26 races in 16 different countries starting in Qatar and ending in Mauritius.

"I'd done the stuff I wanted to do as an amateur and got to the point where the logical thing to do was turn professional. I hope I have done the right thing, I know financially I have as I'm now getting paid for it."

Yet while the money is an attractive factor, it is not the real reason Gracey-Davison continues to put her body on the line.

"It is the biggest adrenalin rush ever. You have butterflies in the tummy before you go over fences as they are so big. You don't know what is going to happen and you just have to somehow get from A to B."

The buzz comes because the sport is so dangerous, and Gracey-Davison knows first hand what can happen when things go wrong.

Her father Gerry broke his back in a bad fall which finished his career before he had even reached his prime.

"You have to try and think positive but you always have it in the back of your mind that something could happen," she added.

"But if you think about it too much in the races then you're going to put the horses off as they can sense it if you are nervous.

"Most falls happen when you are nervous and not attacking the fences. They are very sensitive animals and if you're backing off you can feel them alter their stride.

"I think more jockeys put horses on the ground than the horses. If you look at racing you very rarely see a loose horse fall."

The confidence of youth it may be, but Gracey-Davison does not pretend to be the finished article at all.

"I look at the videos of me riding and think what could I do better. Where should I be in the race, should I have been there or doing that?

"Mum will talk to me and tell me what I did wrong and say 'you should have been there' or 'you went too quick for her' which might not be what I want to hear as I know when I messed up and made a mistake.

"But she is brilliant. It's hard when you've done wrong to hear it but you have to remember it is constructive criticism and they want me to do well."

It may still be a learning curve but Gracey-Davision is in no doubt where she wants to be heading, and what will constitute success.

"Just to be accepted like one of the guys as a good professional jump jockey. I want to get to the stage where I'm just judged on how I ride and people don't think of me just as a girl.

"I'd love to ride lots of winners and make a name for myself in a good way so trainers and owners won't think twice about using Gem."

And Gracey-Davision knows exactly at what point she'll be able to say she made it.

"I'll be able to look myself in the mirror and say, 'yes I've done it'. I'll be able to walk away from it with my head held high, and say I've done just as well as the guys and proven that a girl can make it and establish herself in the sport."

There may still be plenty of fences to jump before that happens, but with Gracey-Davison the racing could just have stumbled onto a winner.