Three jockeys – Rosie Myers, Sam Spratt and Sam Collett – will be seeking a Prince of Penzance moment when they contest the $1 million Vodafone New Zealand Derby at Ellerslie this weekend.

 

Victorian jockey Michelle Payne earned headlines around the world when she won the 2015 Melbourne Cup on Prince of Penzance, becoming the first female jockey to win Australia’s most famous race.

 

Women riders have been winning feature races in New Zealand for 40 years but victory in a New Zealand Derby, the country’s premier classic, has remained strangely elusive.

 

Myers will partner Sir Nate on Saturday, with Spratt on The Chosen One and Collett on Swords Drawn. They could be joined by Collett’s mother, Trudy Thornton, who has been engaged for Masetto, who is first on the ballot.

 

Female jockeys were first represented in the NZ Derby in 1978 and the fact that a Derby victory has continued to be confined to male riders can be described as a statistical oddity.

 

Female riders won the three other Group I classics - New Zealand Oaks, Two Thousand Guineas and One Thousand Guineas - before the turn of the century, as was the case with the Auckland, Wellington and New Zealand Cups, Railway Stakes, Telegraph and the Great Northern Steeplechase.

 

Linda Jones was the first female to ride in the New Zealand Derby and in 1979 won the Wellington Derby, a race that is no longer run. Women riders have recorded 10 wins in the Group I Thorndon Mile at Trentham and won every Group I race at Ellerslie bar the Derby, which has become the last frontier to conquer.

 

Cathy Treymane has the cruellest Derby tale to tell. Treymane was first past the post in the 1987 Derby, on Accountant, but was relegated to second on protest. Since then, Spratt (twice) and Lisa Cropp have also finished second. Maree Lyndon was the first to record a Derby placing, when third in 1986.

 

Spratt, who has won 16 Group I races, was beaten by just a short head when What’s The Story was runner-up in the 2016 Derby and also finished second on Prince Kaapstad.

 

Sir Nate, The Chosen One and Swords Drawn were all unplaced at their last start, in the Avondale Guineas at Ellerslie, but represent top stables. Swords Drawn was never clear when unplaced in the Guineas and The Chosen One will race without blinkers on Saturday, after racing keenly in front in the Guineas. Sir Nate battled well for sixth in the Avondale Guineas and was placed in the Two Thousand Guineas in the spring.