Editor at Large Louise Evans goes behind the scenes at the Australian Turf Club to meet the pioneering women who are helping make horse racing a more equitable and female-friendly sport, on and off the track.
Horse lover and passionate racing enthusiast Jean Shaw first gained entry to Royal Randwick’s inner sanctum by posing as the wife of a dead member.
The ruse was cooked up by two doctors she worked with at Sydney Hospital, where she was the deputy director of nursing.
Being fellow racing fanatics, the doctors took exception to the old-world edict that only wives of existing members were allowed to join Randwick’s hallowed club. So they successfully rorted the rules to fake Shaw’s application.
That was back in 1973 when women were only permitted to be “associate members”. Seven years later Shaw became a foundation member in her own right at Randwick and has been coming to the races “rain, hail or shine” ever since with her sister Judy.
The Shaw family were racing fans and Jean remembers going to Randwick as a child to the free public area called the flat. She remembers looking across to the exclusive member’s enclosure and yearning to be there.
“It looked so glamorous in the members with everyone dressed so beautifully with hats and high heels, and the horses parading around with the jockeys in their silks,” Jean said.
“I love everything to do with racing. I am hooked on horses. I love the colours and the smells. I love the sounds of their hooves pounding down the track. It gives me goosebumps.
“I used to cut out the names of horses and put them on my bedroom wall as a child when the sales were on. I even love their eye lashes.”
Being a long-time member hasn’t stopped Shaw continuing to fight for women’s rights in racing. Two years ago she successfully lobbied for female legacy members to have the same privileges as male legacy members at Randwick.
“You have to fight to keep them honest,” she explained. “It’s been a very male dominated sport over the years and it’s taken a long time for that to change – even now.”
Shaw paid tribute to Australian Turf Club Director Angela Belle McSweeney for helping to further the role of women in Australian racing and for improving facilities at Randwick for female jockeys.
McSweeny is racing royalty, being a third generation owner and the daughter of Molly and Tony McSweeney, the former Tattersalls Club Chair.
Like Shaw, McSweeney has been going to races since she was a child. In 1983 the former model and public relations expert started Fashions on the Field, an event that was instrumental in making glamour an integral part of race days.
McSweeney credits Winx with putting Australian racing on the global map and enticing more people through the gates and female jockeys with bringing much needed “soft hands” to the sport.
Along with the Shaw sisters, McSweeney can always be found trackside at Randwick exuding her unique sense of style and glamour.
The Shaw sisters are keen punters too. While Judy likes to study the form and bet $1 each way, Jean is a daredevil. Jean bets $1 on the nose and goes by look and feel to pick her winners.
The Star Championships day at Randwick on April 13 proved rich pickings for Jean who selected four winners and collected $22 in winnings.
“I was thrilled,” Shaw said. “I don’t do any research. I just look at the horses and how they are moving.”
The Shaw sisters were in the winner’s enclosure to congratulate the owners and trainers of Pride of Jenni, the miracle mare who produced the most spectacular race ever seen at Randwick in almost two centuries.
She led by six lengths after 400m in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m), was ahead 10 lengths at 600m and increased her lead to more than 30 lengths to destroy the field with her sustained pace and record a famous victory.
The tears were flowing as Pride Of Jenni is owned by Tony and Lynn Ottobre and is named after their daughter Jennifer, who died from brain cancer in 2015.
Trainer Ciaron Maher summed up the excitement coursing around the track after the spectacle saying: “Unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like that, ever. Phenomenal. I don’t think it will get any better than that. That is the biggest win I’ve ever seen, let alone had anything to do with.”
Winning jockey Declan Bates confessed the pace was so quick he was worried they were going too fast. “I was actually concerned that we were doing a bit too much,” Bates said. “To be honest, until we hit that line I wasn’t happy at all today until it was done.”
Seven’s veteran racecaller Bruce McAvaney described the win as “one of the most remarkable performances ever seen on any track in the history of Australian racing”.
Seven’s broadcast booth is located just off the media room at Randwick within sight of the Theatre of the Horse. On the wall as you enter Seven’s booth there’s a photo tribute to another Queen of the Track – the late veteran racing journalist Caryl Williamson.
Williamson was Racing Editor at Australian Associated Press for 24 years until her death in 2020 at the age of 67. Being a staunch supporter of women in the industry – from mares to strappers, jockeys, trainers, owners and officials – Williamson was overjoyed when Michelle Payne became the first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup on Prince of Penzance in 2015.
She reported with pride the rush of female jockeys including Rachel King and Jamie Kah who followed Payne into the winner’s circle and felt honoured to document the historic feats of trailblazing trainer and Melbourne Cup winner Gai Waterhouse. Chronicling the rise and domination of the amazing bay mare Winx always added a buzz to Williamson’s busy days.
As racing colleague Chris Roots wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald after Williamson’s death: “When she walked into the Sydney press room on a full-time basis in 1996, it was a bastion of suits and ties. Not a place for a woman. Williamson would change that. The room would become her family and she – its heart and soul.”
While Williamson found fulfillment reporting on racing, the Shaw sisters want to become owners, an aspiration Jean is holding fast to, despite her advancing years.
Shaw wants to buy a grey horse and has even picked their racing colours – lime green and raspberry. “Wouldn’t that be fabulous,” Jean said. “They’ll certainly see us coming down the strait. I’d love to give the fellas a run for their money with a horse that’s all my own.”
Louise Evans is an award-winning journalist who has worked around Australia and the world as a reporter, foreign correspondent, editor and media executive for media platforms including The Sydney Morning Herald (eight years), The Australian (11 years) and Australian Associated Press (six years in London, Beijing and Sydney).
A women sports’ pioneer, Louise was the first female sports journalist employed by The Sydney Morning Herald and the first female sports editor at The Australian. Louise went on to work at six Olympic Games, six Commonwealth Games and numerous world sporting championships and grand slam tennis events.
Louise is the Founding Editor of AAP FactCheck, the Creator of #WISPAA – Women in Sport Photo Action Awards and national touring Exhibition and the author and producer of the Passage to Pusan book, documentary and exhibition.
In 2019 she was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) Queen’s Honour for services to the media and sport and named an Australian Financial Review Top 100 Woman of Influence for services to the arts, culture and sport.
In 2020 she won a NSW Volunteer of the Year Award plus the NSW Government Community Service Award for her women-in-sport advocacy work.
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