Lizzie Kelly reveals she was 'terrified' in early days of groundbreaking career

Lizzie Kelly has said she was terrified when she started her groundbreaking riding career – both by riding against professionals and the nature of lady amateurs' races.

Speaking to the Racing Post as part of a big interview for Sunday's edition, Kelly, who announced her retirement from race-riding at the age of 27 last week and is due to give birth in five months, recalled her early days in the sport.

"I remember at the start at Sandown one day, with a downhill run to the first and a maximum field, I've got McCoy on my inside bellowing, we're trotting round faster and faster and faster and I haven't got a clue what's going on. I'm absolutely terrified, but you learn very quickly how it's all going to work.

"Then when you go back to riding against amateurs, you start calling the shots down at the start, you grow yourself a pair of big b******s, trying to be something you're probably not, but in that environment you can make it work."

The amateur races presented difficulties of their own though, according to Kelly, who discussed the improvement she has seen in the standard of female riders.

"Nina Carberry was as strong as an ox and clever with it, and she was better than everyone else because she understood racing," said Kelly. "Her outlook meant she was as good as she could be and I think a huge part of my resentment when I started was that I felt other female jockeys didn't try hard enough to be good. Lady amateur races were terrifying back then, lots of screaming and nothing professional about them at all.

"I couldn't understand it. We all start at the same level, people don't come out of the womb knowing how to ride a finish, and if you can't be bothered to make the effort, to go away and learn – I didn't want to represent riders like that. Nowadays, it's an entirely different ball game."

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Read more from Lizzie Kelly in the Big Read, available to members from 6pm on Saturday or in Sunday's Racing Post newspaper. Join Members' Club here