Yet in one crucial respect, Lata’s legacy survived. The taboo she broke in 1927 remained broken. Women
have continued to ride in the Grand Pardubice: not every year, but often enough for their participation to
seem unremarkable. The race that was designed as the ultimate test of manhood has been welcoming female
jockeys for more than 80 years.
The rest of the racing world, shamefully, has been slow to catch up. The Grand National got its first female
jockey in 1977 – 50 years later than Pardubice. Charlotte Brew, the woman in question, was horribly abused
for her achievement – and much preferred the reception she received when, later that year, she become the
first Englishwoman to ride in the Grand Pardubice.
Bryony Frost celebrates winning the Ryanair
Chase on the horse Frodon (Reuters)In recent years, women steeplechasers have been making more of an impact, in the UK and beyond. If you
follow National Hunt racing, you’ll recognise such names as Bryony Frost, Harriet Tucker, Nina Carberry,
Rachael Blackmore, Lizzie Kelly, Katie Walsh. Their successes shouldn’t surprise us: a major study
published by the University of Liverpool in 2018 demonstrated fairly conclusively that, once the quality of
the horses is taken into account, gender has no bearing on the outcome of a race.
Yet the same study showed how steeply the turf is sloped to men’s advantage. Women account for 74 per
cent of people who ride horses, 51 per cent of stable staff, 11.3 per cent of professional jockey licences and
5.2 per cent of actual rides in races.
The achievements of women like Frost and Tucker shouldn’t blind us to the fact that, in horse-racing as in
other sports, we remain a long way from anything approaching true gender equality. And there are still
plenty of people in racing who insist, publicly or privately, that female jockeys aren’t tough enough to
handle the most extreme steeplechases. The story of Lata Brandisova disproves that theory conclusively –
or would do, if anyone in the sport were aware of it.
Perhaps, next month, a woman will ride the winner of the Grand National for the first time. I hope so. (My
money’s on Bryony Frost on Yala Enki, if they run; but Rachael Blackmore and Lizzie Kelly may well be in
with a chance as well.) What I hope even more, however, is that this will be the year when Lata Brandisova
gets the recognition she deserves.
She wasn’t the type to seek the limelight. She preferred the
quiet company of horses to the whirl of fame. Yet her shyness
hid a quiet courage that shrugged off the constraints of prejudice
and danger. She became a symbol of hope and freedom in her
nation’s darkest hour, and her achievements made a lasting
difference to the opportunities available to the women who