Cathy Gannon

She is very good, never a worry when she is on board.

she did what any punter would have hoped for from their jockey in that race.. Got out held the rail at all costs. Made the rest (what on earth was Sanders doing out there) look a little dim witted.

Might be one of the better females.
However probably not in the top 100 jockeys in the country.
IMO.

better than turnip in my book

1830 : You may be right but I wish she had been on Postponed today instead of AWdam Kirby !

she is in the top 100. and easily.

anyone know how flat jockeys there are in the UK?

*many

Not in the top hundred ?
She was in the top two dozen  before she had her bad injury-that's what really stalled her career which had been on a constant upward curve to that point.
Still a considerable prejudice against female jockeys....not as much as used to be but still there.

She has not been getting the opportunities since returning from injury and only gets decent rides from Malcolm Saunders. Utterly ridiculous to say she is not in the top 100.

wished she wipe the floor with that trollop turner

Its all to do with body fat percentage.
Breasts,Backsides,Hips and other places.
For example.

1OOlb Very lean Male would have approx 12% Body FAT = 12lb of body fat.

100lb Very lean Female would have approx 20% Body fat = 20lb of body fat

In a sport where strength and weight are so important, females are unable to compete with the Top Males.

People will disagree with me,not a problem.

But until someone can tell me how having extra fat is a plus,I will stick with my views.

approx 130 pro jockeys in the uk.

Is that including Armchair Jockeys?

Is it true that shes going to race a penguin..................

no there are thousands of them.

Rosie Napravnik was pretty good but she is raising a family for the moment.
Not really seen Gannon since she came back but she certainly was in the top 50 in GB. So was Hayley but for whatever reason she DOES seem to have lost it.

agrred salmon napravnik is having a baby but she is by far the best female jockey imo

Watched her at lingfield last night , nothing special

Presumably you felt any jockey could have won on Silverrica, stopper.


1st (4)         2 Silverrica (IRE)     M S Saunders     5     9-7     Catherine Gannon     7/4f
Led on stands side rail, driven and headed narrowly over 1f out, ridden and every chance final furlong, stayed on to regain lead post opened 5/2.

Cathy Gannon didn't have a ride at Ascot and rightly so . Very very ordinary rider, a journeywoman who is more suited to riding at the gaffes. There's no woman riding even remotely near good enough to ride anything with a chance at Ascot. There are plenty big name male jocks who are hardly up to it, not to mind Gannon. People like Atzeni for example made a show of themselves there.

Agree with OP she is good. She deserves more chances.

On masterchef maybe, or strictly even. Not on horses she doesn't

I am very surprised to see that everyday sexism is alive and well on the betfair forum.

Unless you can change nature,genetics or evolution Males will always always make better Jockeys.

could not disagree more. Women are riding at their natural weight and therefore should be just
as strong in a finish.

Best female around, especially in long distance races.
Anyone got any stats on this?

There's no difference in riding a horse in a selling handicap and riding in a Group race
Jockeys themselves have stated as much but common sense would tell us that anyway.
The only difference is outside the race riding arena-with the media magnifying everything to the nth degree. I've observed the whole scene for decades and the imbalance and the contradictions are manifest.
Moore wins on War Envoy in the full glare of publicity and the hype machine churns out superlatives. Gannon wins on Silverrica and its just a workaday ride by a journeyman on a quiet evening at a gaffe. Moore loses in photos on Found and Ballydoyle and that's fine -if Gannon loses in a photo people proclaim that she isn't 'strong enough'. The dice is completely loaded and people accept as fact  their own predisposition which has no measurable evidential basis.
The same applies to many jockeys who just get the crumbs that fall from the table of the fortunate few -I only mention Cathy Gannon because I've followed her career with interest ...she being a woman from a working class background in Dublin trying to make a go of it in England. She has done well and many people have been good to her-I'm not denying that at all.
She,and others,could do so much better if given the chance. She has had two rides in pattern races -and won on both-a Gr.3 on Dingle Bay(in a photo) and a Listed race for Sir Michael Stoute.
The classic illustration of the nonsense about 'Group race jockeys' is Hayley Turner and Dream Ahead on whom she won a Gr 1 -as a third choice jockey.
There's no such thing as a Group Race jockey -there's only jockeys riding horses who don't know
what kind of race they're running in....same stalls, same tracks, same equipment, same  pace issues ,same good/bad luck etc. All that's different is the prize money and the slanted sycophantic media coverage frenzy.

Would she have got beat on any of the horses that won at Ascot? I doubt it.

Jun 21, 2015 -- 9:57AM, sparrow wrote:

Presumably you felt any jockey could have won on Silverrica, stopper.1st (4)         2 Silverrica (IRE)     M S Saunders     5     9-7     Catherine Gannon     7/4fLed on stands side rail, driven and headed narrowly over 1f out, ridden and every chance final furlong, stayed on to regain lead post opened 5/2.

watch the replay on babyfact, and winning on a 7/4 fav doesnt make her great, just normal , john Egan looked special on his winner, watch that

I can see we've convinced you Stopper!

poor jockeys stay on poor horses

Funny -way I heard it was 'good horses make good jockeys'.

Indeed, see Mr Dettori for evidence of that.

Vubiant - you do talk some garbage. Cathy Gannon has had more than 50 rides in pattern races. She's ridden in a Group 1 as well.

THE STOPPER 21 Jun 15 13:54

watch the replay on babyfact, and winning on a 7/4 fav doesnt make her great, just normal , john Egan looked special on his winner, watch that.



Nothing at all wrong with the ride on 12/1 shot babyfact.

2nd (4)     3½     6 Babyfact     M S Saunders     4     8-2     Catherine Gannon     12/1
Chased leaders, ridden and outpaced over 2f out, stayed on under pressure over 1f out, went 2nd inside final furlong, no impression with winner opened 10/1

Classic from khyber kim, "would she have got beaten on any of the winners at Ascot?"
Yes khyber, about 20 of them minimum.

Some very good points made by Vubiant here, but it will be another decade probably before the penny drops and UK and Irish racing accept the fact that male jockeys do not have any significant biological advantages over their female counterparts. All this rot spoken about strength in the saddle is just exactly that, a load of rot. What obvious strength or power advantage does William Buick have over Cathy Gannon for example? Absolutely zero. It's more about empathy, technique, ability to keep a horse balanced, having a good tactical brain etc. No reason, given the opportunities Gannon has lacked, there shouldn't be more top female riders. As seems to have been happening in the States for the past few years, so the same will happen here in due course, just a much longer process.

She's had 6 mounts at Royal Ascot. 1 in '06, 1 in '10, 1 in '11, and 3 in '13. Her closest finish was 6th.

all outsiders, no doubt.

Sorry, 1 in '08, not '06.

@ ged -My apologies for a loose use of language . I had in mind only Group or Listed races which were non-handicaps but, yes, if handicaps are counted she has ridden in far more than one. My only recall of a Gr. race that CG rode in was a Gr.3 race at the Curragh-Dingle Bay for David Evans


I must have badly missed her Gr.1 ride-I'm not saying it didn't happen -can you give me the reference please?

Cathy Gannon and a brain, have you ever heard her talk ?

yes - shortest SP was 33s.

Vubiant - the vast majority were non handicaps. Amongst others, she's ridden in the Nunthorpe, Coventry, Queen Mary and Cornwallis. All Group races.

If you've really followed her career closely, you would surely have noticed her riding in these races (I'm being only slightly sarcastic here).

It you really want a full list of her pattern race rides (in the UK), say so, and I'll post them here.

The Gr 1 was Dinkum Diamond.

I make it 56 Listed or above, 2 of which were handicaps. 1 win. That's in the UK.

Thanks ged for that correction -maybe the fact that DD was a 40/1 no hoper in that race meant I paid it less attention...but it was sloppy on my part.
I can see you're a wizard at records and statistics so I accept fully the accuracy of your statements...no further evidence required.

jackboo seems very well informed.

So you are saying jacboo isnt right ?

You're welcome. Perhaps this thread demonstates fairly clearly that you are only seeing waht you want to see.

^ to Vubiant.

I am not going to accept a statement such as that on an internet forum, mincer. Perhaps you know a little more.

I dont know anything about any london gang sparrow, but i wouldnt be surprised in the slightest. Nothing would surprise me with jockeys.
One person i do know the real truth about is Fallon, and the real reason the little urchin will never ride in Britain again.

she did ride a horse for willie musson got beat and the j/c did go to musson hard to ask him about the ride and she did never ride for him agian

She has a chance in the next

Good ride, Cathy.

And she won

another fine ride from the lady rider.

Thx Cathy

cathy...

Dandy , 3 runs at the track  and now 3 wins and this was its lowest winning mark too , prob why it was well backed

Gannon has ridden more winners at Chepstow than at any other turf track.

Every chance of a double here to increase that number posy

I think Gannon is better than plenty of the male riders. That said I think there are far too many extremely poor female jocks getting rides that are skewing the view and hindering progression.