Jenny Pitman: The Autobiography [Paperback]

To use modern parlance, Jenny Pitman OBE faced a double whammy when she applied for her trainer's licence. First, she was an outsider to the world of racing; second, and more importantly, she was a woman in what was still very much a man's world. As she tells us in her frank and entertaining autobiography, simply titled Jenny Pitman, she overcame the first problem much easier than beating the second.

Known throughout the equine world as the first woman of racing, Mrs Pitman--now Mrs Stait after marrying her long-time partner David Stait in early 1998--is still having to bang her head against the brick wall that is sex discrimination. She tells how, after entering a fitness regime at theb eginning of 1998 and looking and feeling better than she had for years, a male colleague asked whether or not her sex life had improved as she appeared so fit and healthy!

But racing has been Jenny Pitman's life and the book is a no-holds barred account of a truly remarkable career. After telling of her happy childhood as the middle child of seven spent on a Leicestershire farm run by her parents, she describes the happiness she felt at her teenage marriage to jockey Richard Pitman. That joy was to turn to tears 10 years later when her first husband, and father of Jenny's two boys Mark and Paul, twice walked out on her. However, the outwardly tough-as-teak Jenny gritted her teeth and got on with the job of training racehorses.

Jenny has achieved success in the world's toughest races and she fully describes the joy and heartbreak of landing two (it should have been three but Esha Ness's success came in the 1993 void race) Grand Nationals. Then there were the other Grand Nationals, the Scottish, Welsh and finally to complete the set, Irish versions of the event. In 1984 she became the only woman to train a Cheltenham Gold Cup winner and followed that up when the same horse, Burrough Hill Lad, became the first trained by a woman to land the coveted Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup. That was a record which stood until Venetia Williams took 1998's running.

It is a frank book which covers and fully explains her run-ins with officialdom, press and even jockeys. The lead-up to her spat with Jamie Osborne is fully explained, as are the reasons behind her famous letter to Aintree officials over the state of the ground at 1998's Grand National. All in all, an enjoyable and informative read in which Mrs Pitman, as usual, pulls no punches.

The racing industry’s leading lady tells her amazing life story.

Jenny Pitman’s success has been won against the odds. An outsider in the privileged world of racing, she has nevertheless turned herself into one of the most successful trainers in Britain today. And as a woman in a male-dominated profession, she has been forced to work doubly hard for her achievements. Jenny’s love of horses has dominated her life. Born on a modest Leicestershire farm without gas, electricity or running water, she joined a racing yard at the age of fifteen. While still in her teens she married jockey Richard Pitman, and together they set up a stable. Before long, Jenny became one of the very first women to be granted a professional licence to train horses. Despite the subsequent break-up of her marriage and financial hardship, Jenny soon managed to establish herself in her own right as a fully fledged trainer. Since then, horses such as Garrison Savannah and Burrough Hill Lad have etched the Pitman name deeply in the record books. Jenny has trained the winners of all five major Nationals and two Cheltenham Gold Cups. With Corbiere in 1983 Jenny became the first woman trainer to win the Grand National – and she is still the only one to have done so. In 1993 her horse Esha Ness won the ‘National that never was’. Two years later the notoriously difficult horse Royal Athlete won her this prestigious race for a second time. The success of Jenny’s Lambourn stables has been very much a family affair. Like his father, Jenny’s son Mark also became a successful jockey. He rode many of her horses to victory, and on retiring as a jockey worked as assistant trainer to his mother before setting up on his own. In 1997, after an eighteen-year engagement, Jenny married her long-term companion, David Stait. In the 1998 New Year’s Honours list she was awarded the OBE. Her fierce will to succeed, her tenacity and her courage to fight for what she believes in, both professionally and personally – these are the foundations on which Jenny Pitman has built her life. Her frank and lively autobiography reflects this spirit.

The racing industry’s leading lady tells her amazing life story.

An outsider in the privileged world of racing, a woman struggling to succeed in a male-dominated profession, Jenny Pitman's remarkable achievements have been won against the odds. This is her story - a frank and fascinating account of her extraordinary life and work. Born on a modest Leicestershire farm, Jenny Pitman's love of horses dominated her life and led her to join a racing yard at the age of fifteen. Still a young woman - with a marriage and divorce behind her - and with two strong and healthy young sons to bring up, she set about the task of proving to the world that she could survive. Before long, Jenny became one of the very first women to be granted a professional licence to train horses and, despite years of financial hardship, she soon established herself as a fully fledged trainer. Since then, horses such as Garrison Savannah and Burrough Hill Lad have etched the Pitman name deeply in the record books. Jenny has trained winners of all five major Nationals and two Cheltenham Gold Cups. With Corbiere in 1983, she became the first woman trainer to win the Grand National - and she is still the only one to have done so. Twelve years later, the notoriously difficult horse Royal Athlete won her this prestigious race for a second time. In recognition of her stunning achievements and for her services to horseracing, Jenny was awarded the OBE in 1998. In this revealing and often moving autobiography we see how, with skill and a formidable will to succeed, Jenny Pitman became one of the most successful trainers of all time. Both personally and professionally, she continues to meet every new challenge with incredible courage and determination.

Jenny Pitman lives in Lambourn, Berkshire with her husband David Stait. Known as one of the all-time greats of the racing world, she now writes novels and feature articles, and makes regular television appearances.