ENGLISH TEXTS
Office jobs are already filled and require specific skills.”
A Bottomless Loss of Income The peak of difficulty concerns female jockeys for whom pregnancy usually equals the end of a career. A meeting was held between three of them and professional handball players, at the initiative of France Galop and the French Handball Federation. It took place last May at ParisLongchamp racecourse. Maryline Eon, then pregnant, Coralie Pacaut and Mickaëlle Michel were stunned to learn that the Metz handball players, salaried athletes, keep their position and full salary for one year if they become pregnant. This thanks to a collective agreement signed in 2021, more protective than in most other professional sports. The three jockeys admitted they even worry about taking holidays, fearing they will be replaced on their horses upon returning. The French racing schedule, several meetings every day at multiple racecourses, forces constant travel, hardly compatible with family life. Mickaëlle Michel, who has worked professionally in Japan several times, explained:“ If I were to have a child, I would settle there, races take place on weekends and sometimes on Wednesdays. Here it’ s impossible. If I did another job I would already have children, but my career matters a lot to me.” For a female jockey, maternity leave means losing a large part of her income. Jockeys receive 7 % of prize-money won by the horses they ride. These sums are considered non-commercial earnings. Only their salary is used to calculate maternity / sick pay, based on the minimum riding fee for each race in the month before stopping. € 15.52 per race on the flat, € 55.47 per race over jumps.“ MSA takes into account the salary of the last month of activity to calculate benefits,” explains Thierry Gillet, General Secretary of the Jockeys’ Association.“ That can be very penalising if the jockey has ridden little that month or for a jump jockey just back from injury and falling again … In some cases MSA can be asked to consider a longer period.” A jockey like Maryline Eon, 96 wins between January 1, 2024 and February 2025, just before her baby arrived, saw her standard of living collapse, her income divided by sixteen or twenty! Moreover, due to complicated administrative issues, Maryline,“ the first to pave the way” as a freelance jockey-turned-mother, has still not received any maternity benefits, although her leave began in July and ends this month.“ Fortunately I am careful, I have saved money since I started my career at sixteen. Fortunately also my partner earns a good living, otherwise how would I manage? Especially as the tax office continues to take a large amount each month.” Maryline struggles to find the right contacts to resolve her administrative nightmare. She does not wish to resume her career and is considering retraining. Pauline Dominois, flat then NH jockey, became a jockey’ s agent after giving birth to little Marceau in March 2022.“ I was very passionate about my job and employed by Mickaël Seror. I wouldn’ t have stopped to have a child spontaneously, but I was already sidelined after a fall in May 2021, at Vichy, which caused fractures of T5, T6 and T7 vertebrae. I was airlifted … Three months after Marceau’ s birth, I had recovered my weight and started riding again in a jump yard, but the doctors refused to remove the hardware in my back from the operation. We are not allowed to race with such equipment. Anyway, my partner Anthony Renard is also a jockey: if we had both continued, we would never have seen our son.” Now agent to about ten jockeys, including her partner and Coralie Pacaut, Pauline is based near Angers and loves her new profession. There is however at least one female jockey who continues to ride in France while being a mother twice over: Gwladys Fradelin. She“ dived back in” last July, almost exactly ten years after her last race.“ Young, I rode in Deauville for my boss Philippe van de Poële. On July 24, 2011, I won with Cat Princess at Montier-en-Der. I was almost four months pregnant! I went back to work three months after my daughter was born. My partner, who works in a design office, looked after her, or she went to a childminder who even accepted night care when necessary. And then I needed a break. We left Deauville for Corrèze and had a son.” The children are now twelve and nine. More available, Gwladys returned to her passion for horses at 37 … and now over jumps!“ I work for Fabien Lagarde in Pompadour. He trusts me, gives very good advice. I had to completely redo my jockey licence after such a long break. I give it everything and work hard on fitness: jogging, mechanical horse …” Whenever possible, her children follow her to the races and her partner supports her
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