Jenny Pitman: the Autobiography

by Jenny Pitman

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 the beginning 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.

Genres: Memoir, Autobiography, Biography, Horses, Racing

320 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1998

Reviews

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have followed horse racing for well over 40 years & I read any books I can on the subject.
This is a very honest, human account of the author's life & the problems she encounters on the way. It is warm & in places very moving. The book shows Jenny Pitman's love & understanding of horses; highly recommended.

[Darla Ebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have "gone with my gut" on this one. Since I am not a "horsey person", the summary on the back should have tipped me off that I would not enjoy Ms. Pitman's autobiography. But since I cannot resist any book with biography, autobiography or memoirs on the cover, I took a gamble. And was disappointed. Ms. Pitman's family recollections were compelling enough but the horse talk was extensive. This is not a "diss" of the book, it just was not to my personal taste.
If all of the author's memories of homelife could be collected into a book, THAT I would read with gusto.

[Tricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know anything about Jenny Pitman before leafing through a novel at the library and noticing that the author was a 'horsewoman from Leicestershire', my new home county. The book involved horses, so I figured this author was following the sage advice 'write what you know'.

I enjoyed the book (Double Deal) despite it being a sequel to a book I never read. I read the first book, and when I searched for more by Jenny Pitman, I reserved her autobiography.

It is even better than the novels, because it really happened. Pitman has an amazing way of telling it straight. She writes very honestly and her accounts of her trials and triumphs are so vivid that you feel like you were practically there while the events were happening. Her life has been an amazing one, yet she comes across as real and without a tremendous ego or sense of entitlement. In fact, she seems to be sitting down to tell her life story with a sense of amazement, as if she is trying to figure out why her, why this all happened.

There was a bit of horse jargon that I didn't know, and I would have hoped to understand racing a bit better, but it didn't stop the story from coming clearly through, and it was interesting to be plunged into a world so far removed from my own, even though the places she mentions are ones near my home.

Her love of horses shines through the book, and makes you want to get out there and currycomb them right alongside her. What a fascinating woman!

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jenny trained some of favourite horses, Burrough Hill Lad, Royal Athlete, Willsford, Corbiere and Garrison Savannah so I was always interested in her views of them all. Really enjoyed its honesty and warmth.

[Sydne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not really interested in racing horses, yet my love for horses in general brought me to this book.
Jenny Pitman's life story is indeed an interesting one and her successful struggle in a male dominated world makes for a good and uplifting read.

[John Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good on all counts.
Honest & direct-brilliant read

[Rosell Dador]

its very nice story