Jenny Hembrow

The daughter of a Somerset market gardener, amateur rider Jenny Hembrow created racing history in August 1976 when becoming the first woman to win a steeplechase under National Hunt rules against professional jockeys. She also rode in two Grand Nationals. 

Born on May 24, 1946, horses and ponies had played a prominent part in Jenny’s life since she first sat on Snowy, a tiny pony, when just three years old. Soon afterwards she was competing in leading rein classes. After leaving school, where she had excelled at physical training, in which good balance was vital, she was accepted to take a course with the Lucie Clayton model agency. 

However, Jenny quickly decided modelling wasn’t for her and instead spent seven years studying wrecks and charts in the Hydrographic Department of the Ministry of Defence. Much of her spare time, aided by a convenient staggering of hours, was taken up with horses. She had her first point-to-point ride at Buckfastleigh on a horse named Cocky Robin, owned and trained by Harry Alford, but they parted company at the open ditch. 

In 1970, she married Alan Hembrow, a wholesale butcher from Taunton, and began to devote more time to horses. The catalyst for her interest in racing under National hunt rules came when local trainer Tim Handel bought a horse named Old Paint in Ireland for her for just 290 guineas. In their first point-to-point they came sixth, but then Old Paint graduated to racing under rules, trained by Tony Pipe (Martin Pipe’s uncle). Old Paint won four selling chases for her, ridden in three of them by a young 7lb-claiming John Francome. 

But ownership wasn’t the same as riding the horse herself, so she duly replaced Old Paint with a stronger chaser named Jim Hardy, who cost 230 guineas. Their initial foray in a point-to-point ended in a crashing fall, but in 1974 he gave Jenny her first winner at Bratton Down. She later won a race on him when she was four months pregnant.   

Early in 1976 Jenny met trainer Gerald Ham and accepted his offer of the mount on Baytree in a point-to-point. They finished third, then on the following bank holiday Monday she won on him. Her association with Gerald Ham would lead to events on a far bigger stage.

Former jockey Johnny Gamble was instrumental in helping Jenny with her race-riding technique, teaching her how to make horses jump, to make sure she let them get a good look at the jumps. The coaching obviously worked for, at Newton Abbot on Monday, August 2, 1976, the second day of the new National Hunt season, Jenny rode 12-year-old Jim Hardy, trained now by Gerald Ham, to win the four-runner Torbryan Selling Handicap Chase, beating fellow 7lb-claiming amateur Graham McCourt on Rock Eaton by two and a half lengths, with professional jockeys Michael Williams and Gerry McNally in arrears. To Jenny’s relief, there was no bid for the winner at the post-race auction.  

That win made her the first lady rider to win a chase against professional jockeys. The Thorne sisters, Jane and Diana, had already done so in hunter chases against amateurs earlier that year, while Valerie Greaves had been the first to beat professionals in a hurdle race when riding Silver Gal to victory at Hexham on May 4, 1976.

Three days later, back at Newton Abbot, the tables were turned in the Parkin Memorial Cup Handicap Chase, with Graham McCourt and Rock Eaton, now on 15lb better terms, beating Jenny and Jim Hardy by six lengths.

In the summer of 1978, Gerald Ham bought a horse named Sandwilan at Ascot Sales for 4,400 guineas. A veteran of 91 races, mostly for Bromyard trainer Stan Wright, he’d finished seventh behind Rag Trade in the 1976 Grand National and eighth in the 1978 Topham Trophy. Jenny rode him to win twice in the early part of the 1978/79 season: the Knights of Arkley Handicap Chase at Hereford in August and the three-mile two-and-a-half furlongs Kingskerwell Handicap Chase at Newton Abbot. The latter contest was of sufficient value to qualify Sandwilan for the Grand National. 

Jenny and Sandwilan were placed second or third in six of their seven other races that season leading up to the 1979 Grand National. By then, 29-year-old Jenny had ridden 21 winners, 14 of them in point-to-points and seven under rules. Farmer and permit holder Gerald Ham, who was also 29, trained just five horses at his Rooksbridge, near Bridgewater yard and, in just his third season with a licence, had saddled eight winners, six of them ridden by Jenny. 

She thus became only the second woman to ride in the Grand National, Charlotte Brew having been the first on Barony Fort two years earlier. Her husband, Alan, had a £1,000 to £100 bet with William Hill that she would get round. As the horse had twice safely negotiated the Aintree course, the odds seemed good value, although he was 100-1 to actually win. Sadly, however, the bet was lost within a matter of seconds when Sandwilan overjumped and fell at the very first fence. Jenny suffered mild concussion and a cut under her chin. 

Hugely disappointed but unbowed, Jenny bounced back two weeks later to win a handicap hurdle at Newton Abbot’s Easter fixture on Law Bench, trained by Ron Hodges. 

She enjoyed her best season in 1979/80, kicking off with a 15-length success on novice chaser Shoot The Lights at Devon & Exeter on August 22 for Stalbridge, Dorset permit holder Gordon Stickland. The following day she won a Devon & Exeter selling hurdle on Westgate Falcon for Gerald Ham, following up over the same course and distance six days later.

Sandwilan, meanwhile, was in great early season form with three wins, three second places and a third in his first seven starts, winning over the extended three-and-a-quarter miles at Newton Abbot in August and September, then landing an amateur riders’ chase at Taunton in October. By the time Jenny won an amateur riders’ handicap chase on Gerald Ham’s Captain Clover at Ludlow in November, she had pretty, much doubled the number of career wins in the space of three months.

Sandwilan and Jenny took their chance at Aintree again in the 1980 Grand National. This time they fared much better, being prominent early and lying in tenth place at halfway, only to be badly baulked and prevented from jumping the nineteenth fence and being forced to pull up. 

Jenny’s 1980/81 campaign resulted in just three wins from 42 mounts. Shoot The Lights won an amateur riders’ handicap chase at Devon & Exeter in September; Pucka Fella landed a Taunton novices’ chase for Burnham-on-Sea owner-trainer Diana Tucker in October; and Topping won a Devon & Exeter selling chase for Gerald Ham in November. 

Sandwilan, by then in the veteran stage, was pulled up in each of his three early season chases and was sent hunting for the winter. Jenny rode him in what proved to be his final race, appropriately bowing out in the Aintree Fox Hunter’s Chase over the Grand National fences and completing the course, albeit well in arrears behind future Grand National hero Grittar.  

The 1981/82 season was only a week old when Jenny steered ten-year-old Topping to win a Worcester selling hurdle on August 8. However, there was to be a tragic outcome the following month when Topping collapsed and died mid-race in a handicap chase at Devon & Exeter. Once again, though, her fortitude saw her through and she was back to winning ways at Devon & Exeter in October, winning a novices’ selling hurdle for trainer Ron Hodges on Captain Mac. 

As the 1980s progressed, Jenny gradually reduced her race-riding activities, in stark contrast to Gerald Ham, who, having started out as a five-horse permit holder, graduated to a full licence and trained a string of around 40 horses in his Axbridge stables by the end of the decade.