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I’ve been out all day, and I didn’t watch today’s racing live, but I cannot believe that there isn’t a thread to celebrate the fact that Saffie has become the first woman to ride a classic winner.
Well done, young lady. I hope that it’s the first of many.
Oh come on, Gladders. There were loads of us celebrating her in the St. Leger thread.
And by the way, you have no idea how much I like her style of riding and herself as a humble racing personality. That is one of the reasons why I don’t like talking too much about her.The only bad thing about her achievement is that just happened in 2026 and not at least a few decades earlier.
I also hope that there will be many more Classic or G1 winners to come.
The only reason I backed the horse was because Saffie was on board otherwise it would have been no bet. Well chuffed for her she is a lovely young lady.
The more I know the less I understand.
“There were loads of us celebrating her in the St. Leger thread.”
Is that a dedicated thread?
I rest my case.
The biggest compliment you can give her is in full drive you cant tell she’s not a man , so strong
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
As I mentioned on the St Leger thread, it was good to see a moment of racing history. Congratulations to her.
Unfortunately, the media hasn’t noticed much. There is a good picture on the front page of the “Sunday Telegraph” but nothing on the other front pages.
The BBC has the story on its meagre Horse Racing page but nothing on the Sport homepage.
Great to see “Saffron Rose” win this classic especially after being rightly peeved by team tactics in a recent race I seem to recall. Now we know why some girls are named Joy!
Congratulations to her, its a tremendous achievement. The only small caveat I would say is because the Leger clashes with Irish Champions weekend, it doesn’t necessarily pit the best against the best from the jockeys but she’s still gone and beaten another JOB horse ridden by Billy Loughnane and this is not me saying she doesn’t belong in that company, more that she probably wouldn’t have got the opportunity if they were on different weekends. That’s a theme throughout the Leger in recent years too, Sean Levey won one for Aidan O’Brien and Tom Marquand has won two, one each for Aidan and Joseph O’Brien. None of these would have happened if they were different weekends.
Part of why I bring this up is because I’ve seen a lot of comparisons with what Rachel Blackmore did in the jumps and I think the two are nothing like each other. Rachel was chosen by a big yard to be their main jockey and she won pretty much every big race going over the jumps at the pinnacle of the sport. The Leger has become second fiddle for all the big yards on the flat vs Irish Champions Weekend. Hopefully one day she gets a chance to be the main jockey for a big yard like Rachel did. She did her chances no harm yesterday when given her chance.
Sadly, it’s true that, if the Champions Weekend hadn’t been on, Saffie may not have got the ride on Highwayman. Nobody would have given him a better ride though and I hope she gets many more top rides on the back of it. Glad to see Francesca highlight that Rachel Blackmore’s success hasn’t resulted in an influx of female jump jockeys though. Jason Weaver bangs on about racing being a sport where men & women compete on an equal basis and it’s true (and ought to be promoted more aggressively) but, for the women, the opportunity to compete seems still very much based on rides provided by your dad, uncle, husband etc
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