'My mother told my father I was dying, but he just said it was part of the job'

For more than 30 years Gay Kelleway stood alone as the only woman to ride a winner at Royal Ascot.

Kelleway achieved her feat in 1987 aboard her father Paul's Sprowstown Boy in the Queen Alexandra Stakes and has admitted it came as a relief when Hayley Turner finally matched her by winning on Thanks Be in the Sandringham in 2019.

However, in an extraordinary interview in Sunday's Racing Post, Kelleway has revealed what she went through to scale that peak, including a battle with anorexia.

"I used to ride regularly at 7st 10lb and it nearly killed me," Kelleway said. "I'd waste so hard that my face was drawn and sunken. I wasn't in a good place mentally, either. The medication I took then was basically a drug for overweight women that cut your appetite. It was like taking speed.

"Eventually I got anorexic. My mother told my father I was dying; that it couldn't go on. Dad just said it was part of the job. He said models had to do it, so why shouldn't I?"

Kelleway believes the landscape for women jockeys now is far better than it was in her day and believes we could soon see a female champion.

"There are plenty of jockeys with ability but some of them don't have the drive you see in people in other sports," she said. "For a couple of years I saw tennis close up, and the commitment and dedication is unbelievable. Some young jockeys do have it – Oisin Murphy, Tom Marquand and Hollie Doyle in particular."

She added: "I think Hollie is a go-getter. She is hungry and ambitious, and I see no reason why she won't be champion one day. It might even happen this year."

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