Well I would have to say yes they are but just as all male jockeys aren’t at the top of their profession neither are the women. Linda Meech is curretnly Victoias top rdier while in Adelaide the top two on the jockeys table were both women. It’s all to do with the number of rides they get and the quality of them. If women were given the same rides as men then I expect we would see similar results. Of course we should have equality in Parliament but for those rules there are far fewer women interested, in Racing their are much larger numbers wanting to ride and be involved with horses. It’s horses for courses I say. I expect that there will never be quotas for women riders and the point is that the owners should always be able to choose who they want to ride, male or female,they are the ones who pay the bills. Many years ago Ros and I had Toyworld stores and 99% of our workers were women, however we decided once to employ a male to do the same work. Our customers were 90% women and they were embarrased to see our guy cleaning the shelves, as all our workers did and so even though he took over the heavy lifting part and deliveries the idea simply didn’t work out for him or for us. Our girls did all the lifting anyway, we didn’t discriminate there, if they couldn’t do it we didn’t employ them, simple and that’s the way it should be. Our employment test was always the same, here’s whats involved, show us you can do it and you have the job. It was a simple choice and of course many couldnt do it or wouldnt do it. We worked a 7 day roster same deal, do it or don’t do it your choice. We had to harden up as before we took that option we found we were doing the weekend and Thursday night shifts ourselves and those were the times when most of the money came in. In other words, we were working to keep the others employed. Same applies to the punt. We the punters choose when we want to punt. If you dont put in the hours as Stephen has done (see his testimonial) you dont get the rewards. We often get told “we arent making money” but when we ask about what they do we often find they don’t even try to get the best price. When we have peoeple like Rod Cleary at vicbet offering Best Of The Best on 90% or more of races, there is no excuse for not getting a much better price than average. And there are other opriotnsd too like watching what is happening in the betting before yuou make your play. Have a good day today, I hope to.