New statistics show the strike rate for French female jockeys is closing in on parity with the men, but what does that prove?
Kevin Blake has made another fascinating and provocative contribution to the debate over female jockeys, using his AtTheRaces column to evaluate the statistical effect of French racing’s experiment with a weight allowance. Kevin and I differ on how the numbers should be interpreted but at least we now have some numbers to examine, thanks to his hours of work on the subject in recent weeks.
One headline is that the strike rate for all female jockeys in French Flat racing last year was 9.03%, which is up from 6.6% three years earlier and closing in on the average for all jockeys of 9.59%. That weight allowance, introduced only two years ago, is seemingly close to levelling the playing field.
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