A New Zealand Derby win has remained strangely elusive for female riders.
That's a situation Danielle Johnson (Mission Hill), Alysha Collett (Endowment), Rosie Myers (Humble Pie), Sam Collett (Time Lord) and Sam Spratt (Tavlin) will attempt to change in the $1 million feature at Ellerslie on Saturday.
The lack of success for female jockeys, who were first represented in the Derby in 1978, is 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, the Telegraph and the Great Northern Steeplechase. Female riders have won the Group I Thorndon Mile at Trentham 10 times in the last 30 years but have never been part of the NZ Derby presentation.
Cathy Treymane was first past the post in the 1987 Derby, on Accountant, but was relegated to second on protest and since then Spratt (twice) and Lisa Cropp have also finished second.
Linda Jones was the first female to ride in the NZ Derby, in 1978, and Maree Lyndon was the first to be placed, when finishing third in 1986. Jones won the Group II Wellington Derby, which is no longer run, on Holy Toledo in 1979.
