Linda Jones didn’t have a long career as a jockey, but she is a trailblazer for Kiwi women in horse racing. In 1977, Jones was the first New Zealand woman granted a race licence. The following year she became the first Australasian female jockey to win four races in a single day. Linda's father was a farrier and her love of horses and riding began when she was only four. At 15 she joined races held for women at the Rotorua Racing Club, where there was no prizemoney since it was deemed a novelty event. In 1969 these races were called the "Powder Puff" Derbies. The event gave women their first opportunity of riding under full racing conditions at a totalisator meeting, even though betting was not permitted on the race. Lorraine Clark won an early version and Linda Jones won on Scot's Bard in 1970.

Linda would ride barrier trials and simply put her name down as, L. Jones so no one would realise she was a woman. She won a few until that was perceived as inappropriate and stopped. At that point Linda make the decision - stuff it, I want to be a jockey. She would first have to take on the NZ Racing Conference, one of the last bastions of male domination, and help win the right for women to become jockeys. The 'shiny bums' resisted her requests, but Linda took on the nay-sayers, telling them "one day a girl will win the Melbourne Cup", which saw them scoff at the idea. A battle for fairness and equality begun in a sport that saw men play a role in every single aspect, with Linda willing to take the matter to court. But the New Zealand Racing Council rejected Jones' application to become an apprentice, saying she was too old (at just 24), married, not strong enough and would be taking the livelihood from another jockey. Also,they had no women's changerooms.

When the New Zealand government made sexual discrimination illegal, the racing council had no choice but to accept Linda's application, but they wouldn't accept the transition easily. Linda would have to get changed in caravans or little sheds out back, but she didn't care - Jones just wanted to race. Her first day of riding was July 12th 1977, a new dawn in the history of Australasian Racing. With five rides at Matamata, Jones' managed a 2nd placing, but a number of trainers rejected the idea of putting a woman on their horses and wouldn't have a bar of it. Her first win was riding Big Bickies in the Council Handicap at Waikato's Te Rapa Racecourse in 1978. Jones achieved many firsts for women on the track, but after nabbing 65 victories in 18 months, she made the difficult choice to retire in 1980.

Jones became the first woman to win a race against the boys at a registered meeting in Australia. The win came in a black type race, with Linda piloting home Pay The Purple in the Listed Labour Day Cup at Doomben in May 1979. She received a huge reception from the crowd with a hands and heels ride on the 14-1 shot. A week later, Jones's demonstrated her talent in another state, when Northfleet (trained by husband Alan) led all the way to record a narrow victory in the Gr.3 West End Stakes at Morphettville in Adelaide. Unfortunately she couldn't back up the feat with Northfleet in the Adelaide Cup after the saddle slipped. Linda had already broken down the gender barriers at Rosehill on March 31st, 1979 when she became first female in Australia to ride professionally against the males in the Manion Cup.

Jones was able to ride in Sydney only after the racing clubs bought forward the date at which females could be licensed to ride in Australia, largely bought about by the impact Linda Jones had already made in New Zealand. The Australian administrators saw that Linda would be a major attraction, even only as a novelty after her results at the Wellington Cup meeting, with wins in the Derby, Anniversary Handicap and the Douro Cup, which produced headlines on both sides of the Tasman. There were huge crowds that day with plenty of media attention, and certain people calling her the, "Challenger in Mascara." During that time, Linda became the first woman to ride at Randwick, Rosehill, Flemington, Doomben, Morphettville and Canberra. The Brisbane Racing Club even had a "Linda Jones Day" where all women gained free admission to the meeting. Randwick built female changerooms and called them, Linda's Room, while Morphettville labeled their's, Linda's Haven.

Two falls during her first season, including one in the NZ Oaks resulted in fractured ribs and a collapsed lung, bruising to not just her body, but confidence. There were more injuries the next term, including two broken vertebrae, making the decision to retire with a young family an easy decision. Linda continued to mentor and encourage female jockey's while assisting Alan at their Cambridge stables before the family made a permanent shift to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Linda had paved the way for young women to enter the industry and fifty plus years later we now see great female jockey's lining up every raceday. Maree Lydon and Linda Ballantyne would follow in New Zealand as well as Debbie Healey, but it doesn't seem that long ago.

Queenslander, Pam O'Neil was granted a license in May 1979 to follow in Linda's hoof marks, and rode three winners on debut at the Southport course in QLD. Jamie Kah is the most successful female jockey in Australian racing history, along with Melbourne Cup winner Michelle Payne, Rachel King, Clare Lindop, Kathy O'Hara and Linda Meech. New Zealand has produced some fine female jockey's, such as Lisa Allpress, Sam Spratt, Trudy Thornton and her daughter, Sam Collett who are now both in Queensland, the brilliant Danielle Johnson now in Hong Kong with Jamie Richards, Rosie and Kelly Myers, Lisa Cropp and many more now coming through. With around 30% of Australian jockeys now female, and female apprentices outnumbering males in Victoria, there are far more opportunities. That figure is somewhere around 43% in New Zealand. Many owe a debt of gratitude to the first woman of racing down under - Linda Jones.

FB: Linda Jones was not the first woman to ride a winner up against males in New Zealand. That honour goes to Canadian Joan Phipps, who rode Daphalee home to win at Te Awamutu in 1977.

As the first female jockey to ride in NZ and Australia, Linda Jones paved the path