Why Nicola Burns Could Be the Future of Female Jockeys Nicola Burns has the potential to be a “poster girl for female jockeys in Ireland”, according to Johnny Ward. Speaking on irishracing.com’s The Irish Angle show this week, the team lauded the 17-year-old after her impressive performance on Ledecky at Tramore last week. The teenager now has 13 wins in her maiden campaign as an apprentice jockey and our panel believe she has the talent to emulate the great Rachael Blackmore. “Now, I'd say everyone who races at this stage has taken note of Nicola Burns, but I just thought she's been really catching the eye in the last few weeks,” noted Emma Nagle. “I thought the ride she gave Ledecky was brilliant — she got the fractions exactly right. She could easily have gone too fast, but she did everything perfectly. “She's a real rising star. I just had to look at how many winners she's ridden there, early on in the race to be champion apprentice. She's only 17 — it's her first season riding, and she has been a standout, I think. “She could be the next big lady rider name in racing. She's done very little wrong, and she's being used by some of the major stables in the country as well.” ‘A Sporting Individual With Massive Potential’ Racing journalist Johnny Ward believes her attitude out of the saddle stands her in great stead. “Her dad, Robbie's obviously been a big influence,” Ward explained. “You're not trying to big her up too much here now — but I've been following her this year because I've been at a lot of the meetings she would have been at. “It’s just very clear how much people value her as a jockey. She just carries herself very well. “But she's becoming a sporting individual with massive potential now in terms of actually marketing herself. “If you see how well Rachael Blackmore did out of her career outside of racing in terms of getting people on board to back her. “Nicola can absolutely become the poster girl for female jockeys in Ireland, and she can become that flat jockey that we've been waiting for for a long time. “Maybe I am asking too much for now, but she's very talented, and even if she only develops into a decent jockey — which I think she'll be better than that — she has a lot going for her in a male-dominated sport, and she gave that horse a very good ride. Burns Smashing The Glass Ceiling irishracing.com editor Vincent Finegan hailed the sport’s attitude to young female jockeys. “The thing that's interesting here, just around girls riding, we talk about the glass ceilings for women in all sorts of walks of life, but when a girl comes along in horse racing and she can do the job, everybody latches on to her. “There's no discrimination here at all, as there wasn't with Rachael Blackmore. She seems to be first name on the team sheet for a lot of these handicaps recently.” Johnny Ward agreed with Vincent Finegan’s assessment. “I think if anything, there's actually positive discrimination in that sense, where people want to get Nicola Burns riding their horses because they want to be part of that story as well. “I feel she's carried herself so well that she just does her talking on the horse, and she's learning all the time. “People get a great kick out of being involved in her riding because she's a nice person and she’s a young woman taking on the world early on and doing very well. Hopefully, she'll have a great career.” Watch This Week's Irish Angle
