When Debbie Waymouth started riding race horses, a career as professional jockey was closed to women.
"When I was 13 my Dad needed a track rider so good ol' Debbie would do it and I remember saying to Dad 'How do I pull him up at the winning post?' and he said 'Oh he'll stop at the winning post'," said Waymouth of her first ride.
Waymouth competed in the women-only races in the 1970s, known colloquially as the Powder Puff Derbies.
And while it was a thrill to compete against a full field, she said it was frustrating to see winning horses advance to bigger races while their jockeys could not.
"You'd get offered rides and you'd win on them and then they'd go into other races that were only for men," she said.
"So you sort of missed out that way."
But in 1989, she had her first chance to race against the men.
Jockey Debbie Waymouth after winning the Healesville Cup. Source: Supplied
"It was Balnarring Cup day, I had three rides and I was lucky to ride three winners and I rode the Balnarring Cup winner and that was a really big thrill," said Waymouth.
Now 60 years old, Waymouth is entering her forty-second year on the circuit and still can't be caught.
This year she took out the Healesville Cup on Tearaway Tommy, a horse trained by her daughter Rebecca Waymouth.
The mother and daughter jockey and trainer team is unusual in the industry.
"It certainly bucks the mould but hey we can't all be the same," said Rebecca Waymouth.
The first official licenses for female jockeys were given out in 1979, and since then the number of women apprentices coming in to the sport has reached par with the men in many states.
Jockey Debbie Waymouth (right) and her horse trainer daughter Rebecca Waymouth. Source: SBS News
The sport of kings is fast becoming the sport of queens.
"We definitely have a high number of applicants and currently more than 40 per cent of our apprentices are female, and since 2011 it averages about 50 per cent the intake," said Melissa Weatherley from Racing Victoria.
In the past two years, five female jockeys have been killed.
But Ms Weatherley insists the sport is just as dangerous for men as it is for women.
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"They were unfortunate and they were all really unusual situations and we work really hard to always be improving the safety for our participants," she said.
"I don't think it had a negative outcome in terms of applications - we still have, if not as many, more female jockeys applying for our apprenticeship program."
And the new recruits are likely to have Debbie Waymouth to contend with.
The veteran sayid she was still not ready to hand in her reigns
"Every time I think I might Becky gets another horse and I think 'Oh yes that's a nice horse I'll give it another go.'"
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