It was an exciting race. Two horses fighting it out over the fences to the narrow margin of victory at the Cheltenham races yesterday.
The two jockeys too – fought it out with even more determination and vigour.
What got everyone talking was that these weren’t ordinary male jockeys, they were both women, friends, room-mates and the sisters of champion male jockey brothers.
Oh yes, we found out, women can do it too.
I have never really understood why women couldn’t have done it more often actually. Won at the races I mean. After-all, those little guys with their traditional diminutive shape are hardly any more muscular or strong than the equivalent woman. Look at Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet. Oh sorry, that was a film wasn’t it!
Maybe men have been better at it, we think, because men are so much more aggressive and competitive than women. Yeah, right!
I remember the bad old days of militant sexism when some women used to think that the World would be so much more peaceful and gentle if it was run by women. Hehe…..those were the days before a string of formidable women got their hands on the reins of power:
Margaret Thatcher, love her or hate her, was the strongest and most aggressive British Prime Minister in living memory.
Madame Mau too, didn’t flinch when it came to making political decisions involving power
and Elena Ceauscescu, the wife of the former Romanian dictator, made Lady Macbeth look like a Sunday School teacher.
It was all sexist rubbish to think that women somehow had the gentle gene.
So why all the surprize about those women jockeys Katie Walsh and Nina Carberry?
It wasn’t just that they won of course, well Katie won and Nina was the just first of the losers, but that they won by whipping their horses excessively. They have both been banned from racing for a few days but the thought is out and it won’t go away. Women are just as nasty as men when it comes to wanting to win.
Nina Carberry is not shy with that whip either