Carol Woodruff and her daughters Lucinda (left) and Jessica (right)
It would be somewhat ironic if Mickaelle Michel wins the Daily News 2000 with a horse conditioned at Randjesfontein by James Crawford’s assistant trainer Tim Woodruff, because Tim’s mother Carol (nee Millard) was the first woman to have a professional license in SA.
However, she can’t really claim to be the first professional woman jockey in South Africa, because, as she laments, “They wouldn’t let me ride! I was the first woman here to be qualified to ride having come back from England as an apprentice, but they wouldn’t let me ride! It was disgusting, it was absolutely shocking. What they were doing was completely and utterly illegal! I had ridden in professional races in England and Germany and they were short of jockeys in Zimbabwe, so I rode over there too, but I was riding on a “Day” license in Zimbabwe, I was not riding on a professional license.”
She explained, “A ‘Day’ license is granted if they don’t have enough jockeys, so they allow amateurs to ride against the professionals, but I wasn’t an amateur, I held an apprentice license from England. It was shocking what they did to me!”
She added, “I am so happy that the girls are doing so well now.”
She continued, “What was even worse in my case was they wouldn’t let me ride in professional races in Cape Town, DESPITE me having an apprentice license from England, and they wouldn’t let me ride in the ladies races, BECAUSE I had an apprentice license from England. So the only races they would let me ride in was in hurdles races, so I rode against the professional jockeys in hurdles races which were far more dangerous races than flat races.”
She continued, “They just simply refused even when it was pointed out to them that this was not in keeping with the rules.”
Carol said, “But then what they did which was so funny was they passed a rule that no rider who held an apprentice license from overseas could come over here and ride in races. And they left that rule in there for years. But then what happened was one of the apprentices came over here, a top class jockey from overseas, and he couldn’t ride because of me!”
She added, “They eventually changed the rule, but by that time I was married with children and there was no chance I was going to be making that call again.”
She lamented, “It was absolutely shocking, I was 19 years old and I just wanted to be a jockey … no, you can’t, they said.”
She said about riding in England and Germany, “It was hard to get rides in England, I had a few rides and it was the same in Germany. In those days it was very hard for woman, they never accepted us, and when you were a foreigner in England and Germany it was impossible, we were like cheap labour, you just did your horses and were then given these token rides.”
So she never rode a winner as a professional on the flat, although she did finish second in the “Schweppes Challenge” in Zimbabwe.
She lamented, “But in South Africa I was known here, so I would have been able to have a go. It would have been fantastic to have been a jockey in South Africa, but it never happened.”
Carol also had a stint in the USA where she rode for a trainer at Belmont Park, but it was difficult to get going there with all the red tape.
She was there when her sister Jennifer died tragically in a windsurfing accident so came home and never returned.
Carol had been a prolific winner in amateur races and ladies races and won Cape Hunt races, including winning the Champion Hurdle on Hawkins, a former Gold Cup winner trained by Carol’s legendary father Terrance Millard.
She said, “Hawkins was always my horse, I loved him from when he was a baby, so it was nice that he came back to me when he retired.”
Carol began workriding for her father at the age of 12 and she was able to ride in amateur races at the age of 14.
She won her first ever amateur race for a trainer called Gersner who trained off his chicken farm in Philippi and history was to repeat itself when Jennifer won with her first ride, also at the age of 14 and also for Gersner.
Carol recalled, “I won on a horse my Dad sent to Gersner and Jennifer’s winner was a polo pony my Dad wanted to get out of his yard for a few weeks, so he also sent him to Gersner.”
Carol instilled a love of the horse in her children and had wanted them to ride but her daughter who was small enough didn’t want to and her other daughter was too big. Timothy did ride in a few point to point races in England.
Meanwhile, Lucinda is following in her five-times South African champion trainer Geoff Woodruff’s footsteps as one of the best up and coming trainers in the country and she failed narrowly on Saturday to win the iconic Gr 2 Golden Horse Sprint with Cafe Culture, who had won the Gr 3 Champagne Stakes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth in his previous start.
Geoff won the Golden Horse with top horses like Jet Master, Earl Of Surrey and Shea Shea.[
Tim will surely also follow in his father’s footsteps one day, as he is clearly a valued assistant trainer to the powerful Crawford Racing operation.
