Rupa Singh - India’s First Woman Jockey | Fusion - WeRIndia

Jockeying is a highly male dominated sport in India. However, here is a woman a making name for herself. 33 year old Rupa Singh is India’s first woman jockey and she is making quite a name for herself.

The sport is generally considered a “man’s sport” due to the stamina and physical strength needed to control a horse. However, Rupa is dashing her way to the top. Recently she won the Annamalai Plate in Ooty. However, that is just one the 720 other wins she’s had so far!

So far, she won seven championships along with several international races and she is not even close to stopping.

All of this didn’t come easy of course. Right from the beginning she faced constant reject just because she wasn’t a male rider. The owner of horses and even the other trainers felt that she won’t make it far.

For three years, she had to use average horses because of the lack of support she had. However, she proved her talent by winning more than 50 races with the average horses she had. That was when she was noticed.

Rupa’s interest for horses has been there since the age of four. As her father and her uncle were both trainers and jockeys themselves, she got all the encouragement she needed to become a jockey. She was inspired by India’s first female jockey, Silva Storai, an Italian-origin jockey who came to India in 1978.

It was in 2010, when she won the 2010 Madras Classics that she found herself in the spotlight. Since then, there was no looking back for her. She got many victories and she proved her talent through them.

In 2014, she won the Shikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Championship Cup in Poland by racing against other female jockeys. Some of those jockeys were considered unbeatable, but Rupa won the race. Now, she is at a position where no one can say she is not suitable for the sport.

Image Reference: TheBetterIndia