Recent attrition, more than lack of strength or courage, highlights a British theory that female jockeys should be given an allowance riding against the men.
  Maybe our women are superior, given better opportunities to develop because with the top apprentices Winona Costin and Samantha Clenton sidelined with injury and the accomplished Kathy O'Hara suspended, three-kilo claimer Deanne Panya is ready to fill the void at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday.
Panya rode a double on the same circuit two weeks back in conditions similar to a demanding program at Haydock Park in Britain, and will be out to continue the trend particularly on Foreign Prince (Kensei) and Miss Tenpins (Schweppes) with strong opposition, among others, from apprentices Andrew Adkins and Koby Jennings, who are in fine form. 
Unfortunately O'Hara is having more trouble at present with her telephone, confiscated by Racing New South Wales stewards at Warwick Farm on Wednesday, rather than any after affects of a nasty Randwick fall in   April.
According to Paul Innes, Australian Jockey's Association CEO, the stewards have been requested to keep "private and confidential" information on O'Hara's phone that way after they downloaded calls. Mobiles are barred in the jockey's rooms and the stewards are investigating when any calls were made.
Once treated as a turf novelty in Australia, even more so than in Britain, female jockeys are now major players. What they lack in strength is made up with touch and guile. Generally horses run well for them.
"Should women be given an allowance in one of the few sports where they compete professionally against men?" The question was posed by the astute Robin Oakley from a suggestion of champion (National Hunt) trainer Paul Nicholls in The Spectator Australia.
"Paul believes it is time to give the girls some assistance. If mares and fillies get allowances when running against the boys, he says, then why shouldn't women riders?" Oakley wrote.
"It's really hard for a girl," Nicholls stressed. "How many girls could compete playing with a premiership football team? Girls don't get a weight allowance and they are riding against the top pros, so why not a seven pound [3.5kg] allowance?"
And Oakley agrees: "I think we should try it although not as compensation for women being considerably weaker than men as [former champion jumps jockey Sir Anthony] McCoy argues."
Oakley concedes Josephine Gordon is the leading apprentice there this season, "a crumb of comfort", and in last year's Shergar Cup the women's team comprising Canadian Emma-Jane Wilson, Hayley Turner, and apprentice Samantha "Sammy Jo" Bell beat three teams of international male jockeys with Bell winning two of the six races.
Of course Michelle Payne, the Melbourne Cup-winning jockey, was scheduled to ride in the Shergar Cup this year but is down, and hopefully not out for good, due to a race fall. Even before the Cup triumph Payne was regarded as a very good jockey covering both genders.
Innes scoffs at suggestion that females don't handle at the spills as well as their male counterparts.
"Surveys we've had don't support this," he stressed. O'Hara is an example. She came down in the Australian Oaks at Randwick on   April 9 and her mount Single Gaze rolled over on her.
"Kathy would be aghast at any allowance for women after they have come out of their apprenticeship," he added. "Surely more objection would come from the males considering the enhanced engagements they would get. After all Tegan Harrison is fifth (45 wins) in the Brisbane jockey's premiership, Caitlin Jones [34] third in Adelaide, and Lucy Warwick [55] second in Perth."
"Twenty-seven per cent of the riding ranks are female and after Michelle won the Melbourne Cup others are keen to start," Innes said.
But the fallout continues in Britain. "Turner has given up the struggle for decent rides, and Cathy Gannon - our most experienced woman rider - is out of action after breaking five toes in a barrier stall accident and Sammy Jo is spending six weeks in a wheelchair with pelvic injuries after a horse reared and fell on top of her."
Play the Rosehill exotics
Parlay: Race 3 - (1) King's Officer, Race 4 - (1) Wines Tales, Race 6 - (4) Disgraceful, Race 9 - (7) Wonderbolt.
Quadrella: Race 6 - (3) Better Not Blue, (4) Disgraceful, Race 7 - (2) Magical Stance, (7) Kellyville Flyer, (10) Metallic Crown, Race 8 - (3) Scherzoso, (5) Kontiki Dane,(11) Piamimi, (15) Thurston, Race 9 - (5) Oruju, (7) Wonderbolt,(13) Elemenohpree.
Early quadrella: Race2 - (5) Foreign Prince, (5) Sabrina, Race 3 - (1) King's Officer, (6) Calaway Cruizer, (7) Stratum's Siren, Race 4 - (1) Wine Tales, (10) Don't Doubt Marley, Race 5 - (6) Vanderkemp, (7) Dark Steel, (9) Staticlift.
Best box trifecta: Race 3 - (1) King's Officer, (6) Calaway Cruizer, (7) Stratum's Siren.
Best quinella: Race 7 - (2) Magical Stance - (10) Metallic Crown.