Ms Pam O'Neill
Published Mon 01 Jan 2018
| SPORT | Horse Racing |
| YEAR INDUCTED | 2020 - Athlete Member |
Growing up near Eagle Farm Racecourse with racing in her blood, she desperately wanted to be a jockey but there was a problem...women were banned.
So, she started writing letters to the Jockey Board. One a month for 14 years. More than 150 letters. Finally, in the mid-1960s, women were cleared to become stable hands, then ride track work and then it was all-women races at picnic meetings.
Not until May 1979, though, was Pam O'Neill granted a jockey's license and at 34, she rode for the first time against men at Southport and took home a winning treble - a world record for any first-time jockey.
She beat Hall of Fame hoop Roy Higgins in Melbourne's first unisex race and went on to pilot more than 400 winners, including three in a month-long stint in Japan.
Inducted to the Racing Queensland Hall of Fame in 2010, she blazed a trail that 35 years later saw Michelle Payne win the 2015 Melbourne Cup.
A trailblazer and Queensland Hall of Fame Inductee, Pam O'Neill.
