Dedication to her cause brings just reward

Sportswoman of the month: After narrowly losing out last year to Pat Cosgrave in the race for the title of champion apprentice jockey, Cathy Gannon just dug a little deeper in 2004. On October 31st, at Leopardstown, her reward was great: she held off the challenge of Rory Cleary, her nearest rival, to become the first woman, in Ireland or England, to be crowned champion apprentice, with 33 winners to her name.

Naturally enough, then, Gannon is our October winner in The Irish Times/Mitsubishi Electric Sportswoman awards.

"I still don't know whether to believe it," she said, "but in terms of me being the first woman to win it, well, it hasn't really hit me that way. I don't see it as being 'the first girl to win', just that I won it, if you know what I mean. But I suppose I'm the first girl to break through and that's good, it might be a boost to the other girls coming up, they might feel they can do it too."

Gannon (23), is a native of Donaghmede in Dublin where she was first introduced to the "grass roots" of the sport she now hopes will become her life.

"My brothers had horses, then they gave me one. I always loved them," she said. "I'd no interest in school, I was just always out in the fields. I'm not sure what age I was, maybe 12 or 13, when I first got up on a horse, but from then it was all I wanted to do," she said, "I just loved it."

She proved just how intent she was on making horse racing a career when she enrolled as a teenager at the Race Riding Academy in Kildare, and from there she moved to John Oxx's base in the Curragh.

"I've loved every step of the way. I've always been given my chance but, I suppose, any lad I've seen I'd feel I had to work twice as hard as him. If I saw him doing something I'd feel I'd need to double it, really. That's just the way. I'm a girl. You'd just think you have to do a lot more than the lads, fitness-wise, to get ahead and prove yourself.

"But so far so good. I'm delighted with the year, I hope it's not the last of my achievements. Going into that meeting at Leopardstown Rory had to win five races to beat me, but you wouldn't know, anything could happen. I was delighted, it's really hard to take in."

The next target is to turn professional. For that Gannon needs 13 more winners. "I have 82 at the moment, I need to get to 95 - after that you just hope you keep getting the rides. And, some day, you hope to be riding in the classics, up against the bigger boys. That's the dream for all of us.

"You have to be dedicated. I'd keep an eye on my weight, try to keep it down. Diet is a big thing, you wouldn't be eating chips and sausages or anything like that. The night before a race, especially, you want good, healthy food in you. So, yeah, I do a lot of training, I'd be very dedicated, I want to improve. You wouldn't be riding winners if you weren't dedicated. You get out of it whatever you put into it, like anything in life, I suppose."