Coutts Woman

John McCririck

Most men might be rather indignant if their buttocks were pinched during the working day, but racing commentator John McCririck thought it highly amusing when his live transmission was unexpectedly interrupted.

“I’ve never been “goosed before, but members of a hen party on Ladies Day at Aintree, the Liverpool race course, goosed me while I was commentating,” recalls McCririck, who is famed for his huge sideburns and gold bling. “My co-presenter on Channel 4, Tanya Stevenson, told me they had a large target to aim at. Mind you, if I did the same to a lady, I’d be arrested.”

But for somebody who has a reputation as something of a misogynist ­ he calls his wife ‘The Booby’, McCririck is remarkably supportive of hen parties and Ladies Days at the races. “I think racing is a great day out for women,” he says. “Ladies Day at Aintree was sensational. It was an occasion for the women of the North West to dress up, show off and flaunt themselves. It was just like their Ascot, although they didn’t wear the haute couture.”

McCririck concedes that there is an ‘enormous amount of sexism’ in the racing industry. For example, women could not train racehorses until the 1960s.”There was tremendous prejudice, but women can train racehorses as well as any man. Just look at Jenny Pitman,” he says.  “There are some fantastic female jockeys around, like Nina Carberry, who ran a winner at Cheltenham. A lot of horses go better under the silky touch of a woman.”

“There are some fantastic female jockeys around, like Nina Carberry, who ran a winner at Cheltenham. A lot of horses go better under the silky touch of a woman.”

But McCririck believes that, as visitors to the courses, women can be intimidated by the bookmakers, who shout the odds and wave their hands about behind their wooden stands, close to the track.  “Women are afraid of going out there and having a bet. They see it as a very male orientated world. They prefer going to the Tote [the government owned bookmakers], which they see as safer,” he says.

“Women are not really professional gamblers. They don’t usually bet large amounts. They’ll say something like,  ‘I’d like 50p each way on number 4, no make it number three’. It can be absolutely infuriating for the bookies, and I know. I used to be one.”

But McCririck believes the choosing a bookie is like going to the supermarket. “The odds they offer may vary but it is all a matter of shopping around to get the best price.”

The old joke that women bet on colours or names is, in McCririck’s experience, relatively true.  “Women are less students of form,” he explains. “They back Frankie Dettori [a well known jockey, who once rode seven winners on one day at Ascot] at the Tote, which nobody should do. Or they back grey horses, or the Queen’s horses, or horses with names like ‘I had sex with you last year’.”

But McCririck believes that women have a unique advantage to assess a horse’s chances. He points out that more girls than boys ride horses in their childhood, and that many women will have been members of The Pony Club, possibly competing in gymkhanas in their youth. “Many women will have a knowledge of horses. They will have some affinity with horses from their childhood,” he explains.  “They should know what a good horse looks like.”

But for those who have never sat atop a horse, much less competed, McCririck has some advice: “Always go down to the paddock to look at the horses. Never back a fattish one or a sweating one. Only back the horse that looks in peak condition. And if you can get odds of 100-1 at the track-side bookie for your selection, then it might just be a winning day.”