In 1978, Irish-based jockey was the first female to ride at Royal Ascot – and 35 years later she trained Roca Tumu to win at the meeting
Racing is a sport based upon being first, but some firsts have a far greater impact than others. Joanna Morgan (right) didn’t ride a record number of winners but when it came to being first she is practically second to none.
In 1978 the trailblazing Morgan became the first woman to ride at Royal Ascot, having already become the first professional female jockey in Ireland and the first woman to ride in a European Classic (Riot Helmet, 1976 Irish Derby). Her debut at the royal meeting provided her with yet another legacy moment, but by then Royal Ascot had already played a pivotal role in shaping her future.
“It’s where everything started, if you like,” says Morgan, 71, rolling back the years. “Back in 1974, I was just riding in point-to-points in Wales, but I’d been in touch with [trainer] Seamus McGrath about moving to Ireland to ride for him.
“He asked me to meet him at Royal Ascot, which was quite a step up from the pointing circuit! I thought it was a wonderful place.”
McGrath had already posted his big Royal Ascot moment through 1969 Gold Cup winner Levmoss, who would go on to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe the same year. Although his influence was fundamental to Morgan’s remarkable riding career, it was trainer Phil Canty who punched Morgan’s ticket back to the royal meeting with the ride on 33-1 outsider Gallowshill Boy in the G3 Queen’s Vase over two miles.
“I think he was still a maiden at the time – it was easier to get into races back then, you didn’t need to have a good rating,” says Morgan. “He obviously wasn’t a real good horse but he liked fast ground and he wanted the distance.
Media attention
“Me riding at Ascot was quite big news, I suppose, breaking boundaries, a fair bit of media attention. Against my better instincts I bought a hat that morning, not really my thing at all, it was just something to stick on my head like all the others.”
Getting dressed up for the races was one thing, but getting dressed for the race quite another. Female jockeys being a curiosity at the time, there was little in the way of facilities for them on any racecourse, even one owned by the Queen.
“I was on my own in the ambulance room, tucked away before the steps down to the men’s weighing room at the ‘old’ Ascot,” says Morgan.
“I saw the inside of lots of ambulance rooms, that’s just the way it was in those days. One time at Gowran Park I went to get changed and there was a man dead in there, had a heart attack or whatever. You saw all sorts.”
Morgan’s recollection of the race itself is scanty – “If you don’t win, you don’t really remember much” – and she shrugs off the overall importance of her simply being there, a pioneer with her eyes focused on the horizon rather than merely on the next milestone. Gallowshill Boy finished ninth behind the favourite, who was none other than future great staying champion Le Moss.
Faffing around
“We went round in mid-division, I think, didn’t improve out of the pack,” she says. “It was a big thrill for me to ride there, but I tried to dismiss the notion of it being a big achievement. I just wanted to get out there and get on with the job without all the faffing around.
“I remember my parents came up from Wales to watch me, and we went out for dinner after racing. It was a special day.
“I was in the right place at the right time, I suppose, because the tide was beginning to turn for women jockeys. I had the chance to race on five continents, got freebies everywhere. There were a lot of good female jockeys out there and we all saw the world together.”
Morgan rode more than 200 winners before taking out a licence to train in 1985 (while continuing to ride). The following year she was back at Royal Ascot – graduating from the ambulance room into the slightly more palatial surroundings of the owners’ and trainers’ bar – with, aptly, a runner in the Queen’s Vase.
Reason To Be – another 33-1 longshot – performed much better than Gallowshill Boy, finishing third, but in defeat became the first of a long losing streak for Morgan at the showpiece festival. Then at long last, 35 years after her groundbreaking moment in the saddle, the right horse came along to end that frustrating sequence and put her on the Royal Ascot roll of honour.
Cavalry charge
Timing is everything – even after 35 years – and Morgan was working against the clock as she prepared Roca Tumu for the 2013 Britannia Handicap, a big-field cavalry charge over Ascot’s straight mile. The three-year-old had a date with destiny all right, but where?
“He had won well at the Curragh the previous month and the owners had some good offers to sell him to Hong Kong,” says Morgan.
“I didn’t want the horse to go, not yet. I thought he could win at Ascot – I wasn’t confident, of course, because he was a big price – but I knew he’d like the stiff mile and the fast ground and I was talking a good game to keep him in the yard until Ascot was over.
“Anyway, I got him there, but I was concerned when he got very hyper before the race, so fractious in the build-up. However, as soon as Billy Lee got on board he began to calm down, and by the time he got to the start he was totally chilled out.”
Roca Tumu was ice cold when the heat came on. Lee eased him into the lead at the quarter-mile pole and they made the best of their way home, turning back the charging posse inside the final 100 yards to get the money by a neck.
“It was just wonderful,” says Morgan. “My luck was in at last. In this game you’re either a genius or an idiot and after Ascot the horse was sold to Hong Kong for twice the previous offer. So I was a genius, wasn’t I?”
There was something truly special about that Ascot afternoon. The third race – the G2 Ribblesdale Stakes – was won by Riposte, a moment of great poignancy following the death of her all-time-great trainer Sir Henry Cecil just nine days earlier, with his widow Lady Jane Cecil taking on the licence at the yard.
Cauldron of emotion
Barely had the tears of happy sadness been dried before the Queen’s horse Estimate battled to a thrilling victory in the week’s highlight, the Gold Cup, prompting scenes of unfettered delight. Then into this febrile cauldron of emotion came Morgan and Roca Tumu, matched with the hour and equal to it.
“The place was alive,” recalls Morgan. “The atmosphere was amazing. It was just mad.
“It was my biggest win, definitely. I had a very good horse called One Won One who won a Group 3 and was placed in several more, but winning at Royal Ascot topped the lot. It’s our Olympics, and winning a race there is what winning a gold medal must feel like.”
Roca Tumu was sold to Hong Kong, renamed Beauty Flame, and continued to show his class for trainer Tony Cruz by winning at G2 level and finishing runner-up in three G1s.
His big day at Ascot was Morgan’s last big day, for two years later she turned in her licence in order to concentrate on buying and selling young horses with her daughter Katie McGivern. That angle has been a success, but old habits get under the skin and in 2022 Morgan took out her licence again. After all those firsts, Royal Ascot may not yet have seen the last of her.
“It’s just a hobby now, I’ve got a permit and just train three or four for myself and friends,” she says. “I’ve had a handful of winners and it stops me getting bored.
“As it happens I do have a couple of half-brothers to Roca Tumu here – Merisi Diamond won two races last year and there’s a two-year-old who hasn’t run yet.”
Another Royal Ascot runner? “Well, you never say never,” she responds. “Ascot has been good to me over the years, a lot of good things have happened to me there. The place feels like a part of me and it would be nice to go back.”
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