Linda Christine Jones MBE (born 1952) is a New Zealand former thoroughbred horse racing jockey. She was the first woman to be granted a race licence in New Zealand in 1977 and the first in Australasia to achieve four victories in a single day the following year. Jones finished second in the 1978/1979 Jockey Premiership with 18 winners by Christmas 1978. She later became the first woman to ride a Derby winner in each of the Australasia, Europe, and North America continents and the first female to beat professional male entrants at an Australian-registered event. Injury prompted Jones to retire in 1980; she had achieved 65 victories within 18 months. She is an inductee of both the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame and the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.
| Linda Jones MBE | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Linda Christine Jones |
| Occupation | Jockey |
| Born | 1952 (age 71–72) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Career wins | 65 |
| Racing awards | |
| New Zealand Racing Personality of the Year (1979) | |
| Honours | |
| New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame (1990) New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame (2010) | |
Career
editIn 1952,[1] Jones was born in Auckland, New Zealand.[2] She partook in the 1970 Powder Puff Derby as one of eleven jockeys in an era when women were not allowed to be jockeys.[3] Jones was later invited to compete at a meet in Brazil in 1975 and told her husband Alan Jones she wanted to be a jockey.[4] She went on to win the 1975 Qantas International Women's Handicap at Rotorua,[2] and was considered New Zealand's leading female jockey.[5] In September 1976, Jones became the first woman to apply for a apprentice jockey licence with the New Zealand Racing Conference (NZRC).[5] The application was rejected on the grounds of her being "too old, married and not strong enough";[6] they felt she would claim men's jockey's winnings and would not receive the appropriate dressing rooms.[7] Jones and her husband were prepared to go to court,[6] and she led a campaign for improved equality within the racing industry, for which she received hate mail.[4] The government of New Zealand later passed legislation in the form of the Human Rights Commission Act 1977 banning sexual discrimination.[6][7] Following heavy pressure from the racing journalist John Costello, the NZRC approved female racing licences in July 1977,[5] and Jones became both the first woman to be granted a New Zealand race licence and the first woman to compete against men in the country.[8][9]
She was apprenticed to her husband,[8] and required to stay apprenticed until 1982 per New Zealand racing rules with her earnings put into a Racing Conference trust.[10] She began riding professionally on 12 August 1978,[8] at Matamata.[7] Jones achieved her first winner at Te Rapa,[1] and received nationwide attention for becoming the first woman in Australasia to win four times on the same day at a September 1978 meeting at Te Rapa.[3][4][6] She was also the first woman in the North Island to claim victory.[4] Jones rode 18 winners by Christmas 1978 and was second in the 1978/1979 Jockey Premiership.[1][11] She went on to ride Holy Toledo to victory in the 1979 Grade II Wellington Derby that took place that January,[12] becoming the first woman to ride a Derby winner in each of the Australasia, Europe, and North America continents.[5] Jones later became the first woman to ride a winner over professional male entrants at an Australian-registered event when she rode Pay The Purple to a first-place finish at the 1979 Labour Day Cup at Brisbane in May 1979.[5][8] That year, she sustained two separate injuries by fracturing her rib and puncturing her lung.[10] Jones had achieved 65 victories as a jockey within 18 months.[8]
In March 1980, she sustained a suspected broken pelvis, a fractured vertebrae atop her spine, sprained wrist and concussion in an accident while training at her husband's Cambridge establishment.[13] Jones accepted that she possibly could never fully recover to peak fitness and retired from racing in September 1980.[14] She went into semi-retirement and began training race horses and achieved success with them in Australia in the 1980s.[4][15]
Personal life
editShe and her husband have a daughter who was born in 1977.[16] Jones was appointed MBE in the 1979 Queen's Birthday Honours[17] "for her contribution to racing and women's rights".[18]
Profile
editJones was listed between 45 and 46 kg (99 and 101 lb).[19] In 1979, she sought not to enter one or two events of a single meeting as she combined her career with a holiday.[19] Jones wrote the autobiography, The Linda Jones Story, in 1979.[20]
See also
editHonours
editShe was nominated for the 1978 New Zealand Sportswoman of the Year by the nation's South Pacific Television channel,[21] and received the New Zealand Racing Personality of the Year Award from the Prime Minister Robert Muldoon the following year.[17] In 1990, Jones was added to the sporting category of the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.[1] She was the first woman to be inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in March 2010.[18][22] In April 2019, a retirement village on Hamilton's River Road was named after Jones in celebration of her sporting achievements.[9]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Linda Jones". New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ a b "Linda Jones: A Hard Road to get a Chance". Australian Thoroughbred Racing Pedigree Services. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ a b "Trailblazers: Linda Jones". The New Zealand Herald. 13 September 2018. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Henkin, Thérèse (6 November 2017). "What it's like to be a woman jockey in NZ". Australian Women's Weekly. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Robertson, Kevin (4 December 2014). "By the numbers: New Zealand racing an environment of equality". Thoroughbred Racing Commentary. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d Templeton, Ian (6 February 1979). "Linda shows just what a girl can do". The Bulletin. 100 (5145): 68. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ a b c Dillon, Mike (14 July 2018). "Racing: Women jockeys have had long, rough ride". The New Zealand Herald. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Haynes, Jim (2015). The Big Book of Australian Racing Stories. Crows Nest, Australia: Allen & Unwin. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-1-92526-697-9. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b "Ground-breaking NZ jockey Linda Jones lends name to new retirement village". HorseTalk.co.nz. 13 April 2019. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021.
- ^ a b Flynn, Greg (25 April 1979). "Linda Jones – making Australian racing history". The Australian Women's Weekly: 2–3. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 15 January 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ O'Sullivan, Caitlin (15 July 2020). "Celebrating 42 Years of Jockey Equality". LoveRacing.nz. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ "Female jockeys celebrate 40 years of taking on the boys". Stuff.co.nz. 11 July 2018. Archived from the original on 23 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021.
- ^ "Linda Jones injured". The Canberra Times. Australian Associated Press/New Zealand Press Association. 23 March 1980. p. 3. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ "In Brief: Linda quits". The Age. 30 September 1980. p. 36. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Black and gold double lures top Kiwi filly". The Canberra Times. 4 February 1986. p. 24. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ Smith, Margaret (3 January 1980). O'Brien, Geraldine (ed.). "Women of the seventies: Linda Smith". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 10. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b "Linda Jones". The Canberra Times. Australian Associated Press. 8 September 1979. p. 41. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ a b Rodley, Aidan (5 March 2010). "Racing hails Linda Jones". Waikato Times. p. 3. ProQuest 313396910. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 15 January 2021 – via ProQuest.
- ^ a b "Jones' campaign to end". The Canberra Times. 29 April 1979. p. 17. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ "Treble to Linda Jones in Tatura". The Canberra Times. 2 September 1979. p. 14. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Trove.
- ^ "Woman Jockey Catches The Eye". The Sydney Morning Herald. Australian Associated Press. 12 November 1978. p. 89. Archived from the original on 22 January 2021. Retrieved 16 January 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Racing: Pioneer in the Hall of Fame". The New Zealand Herald. New Zealand Press Association. 5 March 2010. Archived from the original on 17 June 2018. Retrieved 16 June 2018.