[ml/nj]

I thought this article was a real hoot.

They don't win because they don't get the best horses!

They don't get the best horses because they aren't (usually) the best riders. Generally the jockeys get the same fee for riding in a race dependent only upon how they finish and what the purse of the race is. So the people with the best horses naturally seek out the best jockeys, and the best jockeys want to ride the horse they think is most likely to win the race. I cannot believe any owner or trainer wouldn't rather have had Rosie Napravnik ride their horse than some guy who only wins five percent of his mounts at a minor league track. No one would care that she's a girl!

I've been following horses for more than half a century now at the most competitive US racetracks and to my mind only Rosie Napravnik ranked with top jockeys. Julie Crone was decent but she sure gave a lot of the horses she rode bad rides. I didn't even know who this Cooksey babe was until I Googled. She won her races at minor league racetracks. If she had tried to compete in NY or Southern California, she wouldn't have her 2000+ winners.

Of course strength is important. Eleven year old girls may be bigger than their male classmates but it is unusual for them to demonstrate superior physical strength at anything. But the authors blow off the strength aspect by assuming that 54 year-old Bill Shoemaker couldn't have been winning based upon strength. Cunning apparently never crossed their minds.

But then strength isn't involved at all in the game of Chess. But very few woman even attempt to compete in top level tournaments open to men.

ML/NJ

[NorthMountain]

Racing needs to fix its gender problem,

Bullshit.

[Leaning Right]

Easy fix here. Just have some of the male jockeys temporarily declare themselves to be female. Gender is a fluid thing anyway. At least that’s what the PC folks have been saying.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Why so few women jockeys? I’m sure that could be looked into. Is it really due to sex discrimination?

[TBP]

One way of helping to determine which horse to bet is to look at the jockey. If certain jockeys are up, that increases the horse’s chances.

So if you’re running in a major race such as the Derby, you want the best rider you can get in order to maximize your chances of winning. If a woman jockey is the best available rider, she’ll get the best available mount.

A couple of women have ridden in the Derby. They have not won.

You work your way up to the best horses.

[Opinionated Blowhard]

Why aren’t there more women in professional football? We need to look into that too. For that matter, why aren’t women allowed to box against men? Isn’t that discriminatory since the purses for men’s fights are higher than woman-woman boxing?

[Red Badger]

We need to close the Horse Show loophole...............

[Phlap]

I think Hillary should take up jockeying now that she is retired from politics.

[Cowboy Bob]

Feminists still consider Secretariat to be a positive roll model for women

[xzins]

Wonder why they don’t require an equal number of fillies and stallions?

:>)

[Vendome]

It took 3 affirmative action recipients to write one article?

[Mr. K]

Got it?

This is a PROBLEM.

That needs to be FIXED.

Not having women jockeys is A PROBLEM.

Keep repeating that top your libtard friends until it sinks in. I am not exactly sure who it is a problem for.

[rlmorel]

If a man and a woman are the same weight, and have worked to the limit of their capabilities to get to that weight, the man is simply going to be stronger, and there is nothing a woman can do about it.

Nothing.

Men have the "unfair" advantage of naturally occurring steroids (testosterone) and biology that makes their bones denser, gives them more muscle mass, and greater upper body strength.

This graph tells the story:

There will always be cases where certain women can best certain men physically. But all things being equal where a woman at the top of her strength goes up against a man at the top of his strength at the same age...that man is going to win. No question.

In the graph above, the 7.5-10 strength factor range to the right on the X axis, women cannot compete. They simply cannot. That area is the tip of the physical pyramid for professional athletes, football and basketball players, marathoners, etc. where small changes mean you don't succeed.

I find it interesting that women have said for years they don't do as well as men at sports because they are denied the opportunities men have. It simply isn't true (any more than the Hollywood movies that show women routinely kicking the butts of a half dozen men at a time) since women have been running marathons for generations now, and in the Boston Marathon, the very first woman to cross the finish line does so nearly 15 minutes after the first man.

That is a mountain of difference. It is why only stupid people think it is okay to let women and men compete together in sports.

[yoe]

Becoming a jockey means to be truly qualified to ride and quide your horse through a field of 20 or more equally determined jockeys and horses. There few women jockey's for a reason.

Just because you are female doesn't mean you are qualified for the job!

[DoughtyOne]

This topic has been presented in a gender insensitive way. It’s actually quite insulting.

There are at least 45 different genders according to people who idolize CNN. Why does CNN only mention two of them in this coverage?

CNN should be boycotted until further notice.

/s 1/2

[Interesting Times]

I look forward to CNN’s articles on the rampant gender discrimination in the NFL, NBA, and Major League Baseball.

[poconopundit]

Real nice article to post... and I like your expert commentary.

As it turns out, females have already had a few successes in triple crown wins: From a story on Sport List of the Day:

Most horses that run (and win) in the triple-crown races – Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes – are colts. Colts are male horses under the age of four. Past four, male (adult) horses are called “stallions” or just plain old “horses.” All 11 triple-crown winners have been colts.

Fillies are female horses usually under the age of four, but for the sake of horse racing, that limit is pushed up a year to five. Adult female horses are called “mares.”

Compared to the number of colts, very few fillies have raced in the Derby or the two Stakes, and even fewer have won. The number of filly entrants for each are noted below along with the winners.

Rachel Alexandra was the last filly to win any of the three races – she won the Preakness in 2009. In 2007, Rags to Riches won the Belmont.

The story is highly interested with a couple pics...

[freedomson]

To the casual observer, Thoroughbred horse racing looks fun. The jockey is just along for the ride.

It is incredibly dangerous.

Loosely astride a 1000 pound temperamental animal, encouraging it to accelerate in the middle of a pack of other stressed beasts has it's risks and takes more courage than most people imagine.

Every jock gets hurt at some point or another in their career, if not maimed, paralyzed or killed.

It is a hard cruel life.

On the other hand, you will see many women in the less dangerous sport of harness racing. Women seem to have more of a sense of self preservation.

[LauraJean]

the 3 stooges that wrote this article (sorry moe, larry and curly) can put their money where their mouths are and buy some horses. They can then hire a trainer and tell the trainer to use only female jocks and get them on the Derby trail. If they win then other trainers will use those jockettes and we will see lots women riding in Derby.

[Kid Shelleen]

The men who invest millions of dollars in race horses don’t have any incentive to find the best possible jockeys. Horse racing is just for show and there is no great financial reward for winning the Kentucky Derby. /S

[siberianheat]

Of course strength is important. Eleven year old girls may be bigger than their male classmates but it is unusual for them to demonstrate superior physical strength at anything.

You are right on all points, but I found this comment worth a reply and you might find it interesting. I was sitting at a function in an elementary school gymnasium recently and they had a list of 10 physical strength records for their students over the years (up through sixth grade, I think, so kids are about 12 years old). One list was for boys and the other for girls. I was SHOCKED that the girls eeked out wins in 9 of the 10 categories (things like pull ups, push ups, etc). So while the author of the article may technically be correct that there is a narrow window of time where girls outperform boys, that means absolutely nothing outside the the school gym. Hell, I love it when women show up the men in traditionally men's sports (Danica Patrick comes to mind) but the premise that women are held down is laughable to anyone who has kids in grade school. Girls and boys have different interests from the get go and there's not a damned thing anyone can do about it.