At the start of March Great British Racing launched a digital-first equality campaign called #JustJockeys to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March.
Great British Racing, the official marketing and promotional body for British Horseracing which aims to grow interest and participation in the sport, aimed to showcasing the talent of women in a sport where they compete on an equal footing to men.
The campaign is spearheaded by a digital video featuring some of the country’s most famous Jump and Flat racing jockeys including
The initiative sets out to show that all successful jockeys have the very same attributes and there is no need to differentiate between male and female jockeys – they should all be referred to as ‘jockeys’.
The campaign video features Jump and Flat jockeys, including record breaker Hollie Doyle who holds the most wins for a female jockey, 2019 Champion Flat Jockey Oisin Murphy, Grade-One winning jockey Lizzie Kelly and Nicola Currie who was the first woman to ride in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.
Comment:
International Women’s Day in 2020 falls just 48 hours ahead of the start of this year’s Cheltenham Festival – the Olympics of the National Hunt jump racing season which runs from 10 March to 13 March – which raises the question whether one of the leading women might become the first to win one of the marque races (Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and the showpiece Gold Cup)
Especially after the 2019 festival turned into a triumph for female jockeys with four winners rode by Bryony Frost, Lizzie Kelly and Rachael Blackmore (two wins) – including a pair of Grade One race victories.
The campaign launch also coincide with the release of race data revealing that over the last five years there has been a 76% rise in women winners across Jump and Flat racing: with a 79% rise from 316 to 567 winners on the Flat during the period and a 68% rise in Jump racing from 139 winners in 2015 to 234 winners by women last year.
Links:
Great British Racing
http://www.greatbritishracing.com/
https://www.facebook.com/greatbritishracing
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClfhbQgruVeP41G8VhYDLrw/featured
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