Female jockeys are born to ride

It’s just before noon on Geelong Cup day and while it seems like half the city has shut down and is here to celebrate, there’s work to be done.

There’s 3am alarms, thousands of kilometres to travel each week and imminent danger at every turn.

But there’s nowhere else this quartet would rather be.

Inside the female jockey’s room at Geelong, Nikita Beriman, Katelyn Mallyon, Tahlia Hope and Jessica Eaton all came and went as the day went on.

It’s a pretty calm place away from the buzz.

Next door, “the boys”.

There’s banter and laughs, but ultimately they’re there to pit themselves against every other jockey — gender aside.

“I don’t really think (we are treated any differently) by other riders or trainers,” Beriman said.

“We work so hard to be known as an athlete, not as a female jockey or a male jockey. We all go out there and do the same thing.

“If you work hard, trainers are willing to use you. Things have improved dramatically and can only get better.”

Beriman arrived at the track long before most punters, and was found stretching and examining the form in the room well before her first race.

It’s changed a bit since she was the first female to ride a Group 1 winner in Victoria 10 years ago.

Now, the female jockey room can get “packed”.

And the work doesn’t end when the last race finishes.

They all put in “plenty of homework”, watching replays, doing speed maps and form.

When Beriman leaves the room and meets her trainer — Shea Eden for both rides — and chats to owners after a pinch and a “g’day” from former champion trainer Peter Moody on her way to the yard, she knows just about exactly where each horse should be and when.

As for finishing fourth aboard King Way in the second, there was “frustration” as she watched the replay for a third time.

“I want them all to win,” she grinned.

When Hope arrives, there’s some catching up to do before some swapping of gear and a word or two of advice.

“I absolutely love helping them,” Beriman said.

“I’m more than happy to watch a replay or give my opinion if it’s asked for. I don’t care about lending my gear — it’s not a big issue for me.

“It’s good to see the young ones coming through and doing really well.”

Mallyon was the only one of the four to ride in the day’s feature.

Her brother Andrew worked the jockey circuit long before her, but she has more than held her own now that it’s her time.

“He warned me more so just that it’s a hard industry, and it is – it’s hard for the best at the top,” Mallyon said.

Hope went to the same school as Mallyon in Seymour, and lived around the corner.

Now they share digs at the track.

“I used to look after her when she was little – I look after her here, now,” Mallyon said.

“We’re all fantastic mates but we’re not so much matey out there – it’s every man for themselves out there (in races). We’re always treated very well and I’ve never felt any different.”

Michelle Payne and Kathy O’Hara were idols to Mallyon as she rose through the ranks, while Linda Meech has proven a strong mentor for Eaton.

Eaton lives with Meech in Stawell, with her bedroom repurposed from its former use.

“The room I’m sleeping in used to be her trophy room,” Eaton said.

“She’s ultra-consistent, so that’s my aim.”

Eaton’s day didn’t go to plan.

The apprentice drove from Stawell for her first listed ride but didn’t get it, with Tiszo Wicked living up to her name, rearing as she left the yard and then getting scratched at the barrier when she flipped.

Eaton grabbed the bars above her and “let herself fall off” before the mare exited the front of the barriers facing backwards.

That is, as they say, racing.

The feeling?

“It’s mainly just disappointment rather than rattled,” Eaton, 24, said.

“You know that you’re safe. The barrier attendants do an amazing job, especially in those situations. You’ve got to deal with the disappointment and learn to get over it. It’s all experience and we live to fight another day.”

Hope, 19, says her friends understand the gig, but it’s hard to decline when they want to go out on a Friday night.

“You do and you don’t have a life, to a degree,” she explained, having travelled following Ballarat trackwork.

Racing in a Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate or Caulfield Cup on “something that’s a chance” is the goal for the child who used to be “parked in the jockey’s room” as trainer father Shannon saddled up his horses on race days.

She has often had grandfather Lee — also a trainer — trying to convince her to get out of the saddle.

“I think he loves it, but he’d never tell you that,” she smiled.

Hope broke her tibia, fibia and ankle this year — the perils of racing. There’s a plate and nine screws in there at the moment — it gets a bit stiff on a cold Seymour morning.

Beriman was once in Hope’s shoes, having her first ride in 2002.

The passion hasn’t waned.

Both of her parents were jockeys and her father a trainer – she’d ride work before school.

“It was probably bred into me,” she said.

“I couldn’t imagine getting out of bed to go to a 9-5 job in an office.

“And I’m the luckiest person in the world.”