Horse racing is one of the oldest sports in the world, and it grew to a point where now there are millions of fans that love watching the tense competition between the fastest horses in the world. With that said, the horses don’t take all the fame from winning big events, as the jockeys are also very responsible for the horse’s performance in a race.
Just to get into the spirit of horse racing and popular races like the Breeders’ Cup or the Travers Stakes, which is part of the Saratoga racing calendar by TwinSpires.com, we decided to highlight the best female jockeys that dominated the world of horse racing.
Now as horse racing started becoming more mainstream, the difference between male and female dominance in the world of jockeys started to narrow down. With that said, there is still a great difference as it is estimated that only 12% of all professional jockeys are women.
However, this doesn’t mean that there are less successful than men, and in this article, we will prove that by highlighting some of the most successful female jockeys of all time.
Famer Jockeys That Dominated the World of Horse Racing
As horse racing is becoming a more popular choice for female riders, some female riders managed to get a lot of success in the world of horse racing. Let’s find out the most successful female jockeys in the world.
Hayley Turner
Hayley Turner is without a doubt one of the most successful riders in the world, and not only comparing her success to female jockeys but also, she is more successful than most men in the industry.
Hayley is born in 1982 and is an extremely talented woman that managed to get over 1,500 wins on flat horse races. She became the first female horse rider ever to get 100 UK flat race wins in a single calendar year.
Rosie Napravnik
Here we have another world-renowned female jockey that managed to build quite an impressive career in professional horse racing. She comes from the United States and is born in 1988. After spending most of her childhood around horses, she created a special bond with these majestic animals and sharpened her skills to become one of the best female jockeys of all time.
Throughout her professional career, she managed to collect more than $71 million in prize purses from horse racing winning close to 1,900 professional races.
She retired from professional horse racing in 2014 after she found out that she is pregnant, but who knows, maybe she will return to the big scene soon.
Julie Krone
Here we have another female jockey coming from the United States that is currently retired from professional racing but still holds the first spot for highest career earnings of all time. Julie Krone born in 1963 dominated the professional horse racing scene for years.
Throughout her career, she managed to collect more than $90 million in earnings, and win more than 3,700 races, which is incredible.
She is also the first female jockey ever to be introduced into the National Museum of Horse racing and Hall of Fame.
It is also important to mention that Julie Krone is also the first female jockey ever to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Michelle Payne
We move to the other side of the world to Australia, where we have another very successful female jockey that managed to build quite a successful career in horse racing. Michelle Payne, born in 1985, is the first woman ever to race in the Melbourne Cup and win it. Only by winning the Melbourne Cup, did she manage to accumulate $6.2 million, and throughout her career, she earned a lot more money winning more than 760 races.
However, her career didn’t last very long after she tested positive for the banned appetite suppressant is known as phentermine and she decided to quit professional horse racing. With that said, she is still a great supporter of other women in the world of horse racing.
Nina Carberry
Here we have an Irish National jockey that managed to build quite a name for herself in the horse racing community. Nina Carberry is born in 1984 and she is another female horse rider that comes from a family with deep roots in the horse-riding industry.
Following the footsteps of her father Tommy Carberry, who was also a professional jockey, as well as her two brothers who are also in the horse racing world, Nina as a female shared the same success, if not more than the rest of her family.
Throughout her career, she managed to win more than 400 races and get more than $6 million in race earnings.
However, after finding out that she is pregnant, she decided to retire from professional racing in 2018, and now spends most of her time with her family.
