Two years after doctors warned she might never ride again apprentice jockey Elen Nicholas was saluting the judge as she celebrated her first flat win.

 

It was a victory which had never seemed likely half a world away when she had sustained a serious ankle injury during a fall from a horse back in the UK.  After multiple failed surgeries, months of therapy and a forced hiatus from riding of over a year a future as a jockey seemed remote.

 

“My parents told me to get another job,” the now Cambridge-based Nicholas said.  But that just made her all the more determined to achieve her goal and return to the saddle.

 

Growing up in the north-west town of Bangor, Wales, Nicholas has always had a passion for horses, racing in particular.  However, with academic parents and no obvious interest in racing within her immediate family she didn’t know what drew her to the industry.

 

“It wasn’t until I rode my first winner, and someone told me my grandma would be so proud, that I found out my grandmother trained.  I was shocked,” she said.

 

Not only did Nicholas’s grandmother train point-to-point horses in Wales, she also harboured a dream of being able to ride them, something which the restrictions on female jockeys at the time prohibited.

 

At the age of 18 though Nicholas was living her grandmother’s dream, riding point-to-points and notching her first win on a 14-year-old she purchased herself for £600.  The passion which had skipped a generation took root firmly and has led Nicholas down a career path which couldn’t be more different than the rest of her family.

 

While both parents are University lecturers, supervising PhD students, her father also exhibits an adventurous side travelling the world as a paraglider instructor.  Her younger brother has also travelled down the academic path and is currently studying to be a neurologist

 

“It’s always been a dream of mine to ride as a jockey, it’s amazing to think it is becoming a reality,” she said.

 

The move to New Zealand came about in 2018 when Nicholas spied a position advertising a role as an amateur riding with Hastings trainer Paul Nelson.  She took the plunge, made the move and the platform for her career was set. 

 

Nelson gave Nicholas her first start in New Zealand over the chase fences aboard Zadetta at Trentham with the duo finishing third behind Perry Mason and Shamal.

 

"I'm really grateful for all the help Paul gave me, my time there really opened my eyes to New Zealand racing," she said.

 

Nicholas had 15 starts over the jumps for one win on $15.90 outsider He's Dan in the Rotorua Bay of Plenty Hunt Cup in September last year. 

 

After returning to Wales and then having a small stint in Australia, Nicholas decided New Zealand was where she needed to be in order to pursue her career as a flat jockey.

 

"I decided to stay in New Zealand and ride on the flat as there is an opportunity to create a career here, it is just not the same back home, especially for a girl. Although this is changing," she said.

 

Despite females being allowed to race day ride in Britain since 1972, six years earlier than in New Zealand, progress has been slow over the past 48 years.

One of those leading the charge for female jockeys in Britain is Welsh jockey Holly Doyle.

Described by BBC as "5ft pocket rocket” Doyle is currently sitting in the top 10 of the jockeys’ premiership.

 

In Britain, only 14 percent of jockeys are female, with just one percent riding at Group level.

 

Compare this to New Zealand where 43 percent of jockeys are female. Currently, four females are sitting in the top 10 - Sam Collett (two-time Group 1 winner, and previous premiership winner);. Lisa Allpress (three-time premiership winner; the first New Zealand female to ride 1000 winners; and ridden world-wide); Danielle Johnson (four-time Group 1 winner) and Rosie Myers (five-time Group 1 winner).  

 

The only Group One race which has yet to fall to a female jockey is the Vodafone NZ Derby.

 

Under the guiding influence of her boss, Cambridge trainer Andrew Campbell, Nicholas is working in a small stable which has enjoyed a lot of recent success, and with three of the team currently nominated for the Vodafone NZ Derby.

 

"I was blown away by how supportive trainers are here in wanting to help, in the UK it often feels like you have to be from a racing background to get anywhere," Nicholas said.

“It’s amazing here in New Zealand, I can do what my Grandmother couldn’t.”