Gay Kelleway

Gay Kelleway (born 1963) is a British racehorse trainer based in Exning, near Newmarket. She is a former jockey who competed in flat racing and was the first woman to ride a winner at Royal Ascot.

Background Kelleway comes from a racing background. Her father, Paul Kelleway, was a National Hunt jockey who became a trainer of horses on the flat. In 1976 the family moved from Sussex to Newmarket.

Career as a jockey Kelleway had her first ride as an amateur in 1980, when she was sixteen. The following year she rode her first winner and was second in the Ladies Amateur Championship. In 1982, aged eighteen, she became the youngest ever leading female amateur jockey and retained the title in 1983 before turning professional. In 1987 she became the first woman to ride a winner at Royal Ascot when Sprowston Boy, trained by her father, won the Queen Alexandra Stakes by eight lengths. It would be thirty-two years before another woman rode a winner at the meeting. After eight years as a jockey, Kelleway switched to training as it became difficult to maintain a racing weight. Over her career as a jockey, Kelleway rode 86 winners in Britain and 16 abroad, including in New Zealand. In 1996, she saddled her first Group races Group winner, when Anzio won the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes at The Curragh. Although training mostly on the flat, she saddled Absalom's Lady to win the Grade 2 Haldon Gold Cup over jumps at Exeter in November 1996.

Awards In 2023, Kelleway was a winner at the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards for her work in rescuing abandoned racehorses in Ukraine.

Personal life Kelleway featured in Horse Play, a play about Ascot winner Sprowston Boy, written in 2023 by Katie-anna Whiting, the granddaughter of one of the horse's owners.