The Royal Western India Turf Club took a path breaking decision in September 1984, when they issued young Ayesha Captain a license to ride. She became the first woman to be given a ticket and it must have taken a lot of guts to break with male chauvinistic tradition of a century plus and allow a member of the fairer sex into what was considered a male bastion.
And if you thought that the then Stewards of RWITC acted with the courage of their conviction, think about what must have been buzzing around the mind of the diminutive young lady named Ayesha. Standing a shade under 5 feet 2 inches in her socks and weighing less than 45 kilos, here she was stepping into a sport where perhaps even angels would have feared to tread.
But it wasn’t the glamour or the glory that got her into racing. In a sport that is all about pedigrees and bloodlines, Ayesha could boast of impeccable lineage. Her Mum and Dad were both accomplished riders as were her grandparents, and for her too horses were a passion. But she decided that she wanted to take her involvement to an even higher level – ride as a professional and as a licensed jockey.
Her passion and zeal, along with the staunch support from veteran trainers like Aziz Mahmoud and Janardhan in Bombay and Rashid Byramji in Bangalore were possibly the deciding factors that convinced the hierarchy at RWITC to grant her a license. The cynics had their knives out and both the management and Ayesha faced quite a bit of flak, but it didn’t take long to silence the detractors.
Ayesha won the first race of her career on Pune Derby Day in 1984. Call it a sense of déjà vu, but her first win was on a horse called Cimarron, probably named after an Oscar winning film which revolved around a woman named Sabra who had to fight to achieve success.
Ayesha relished every minute of living that dream of being a jockey. She was lucky to have mentors like Madhu Reddy and her father Soli Captain who gave her all the encouragement she required and of course her husband Vinayak who was always there for her.
She gave it everything she had and will go down in the annals of Indian Racing as the first woman to be licensed to ride as a professional. Breaking the glass ceiling as it were thanks to the futuristic thinking of the Royal Western India Turf Club who became the first Race Club in the country to allow a woman to don sills and compete on equal terms.
