THE intention by the French authorities to give lady riders a 4.4lb allowance has attracted much debate across the racing world this week. For the most part, it has received a negative reaction.

Girls consider it a backward step for equality, chauvinistic, they want to compete on equal terms. It was considered an insult for many competent lady riders who had succeeded without any outside aid.

Male riders made the point it’s unfair to discriminate against them and give girls a weight allowance. Young male riders would face a female opponent riding four and a half pounds lighter. There were a few females riders have said, yes I’d take it if given.

Dismissing it immediately may not be the wisest move. It ignores the facts of the last 30 years that for a girl to compete for top rides, it’s not always about ability. It’s about getting the opportunities on a regular basis to prove your competence. That is where lady riders on the whole, have made little progress. In a largely male arena, among owners and trainers, female jockeys lose out.

The can be no argument that very few girls make it to the level that they are consistently booked for rides. And like it or not, 21 years after Alex Greaves became the first lady to ride in the Derby, there has only been a small improvement, on the flat, in the likelyhood of lady jockeys to be called upon for a decent horse. Hayley Turner made the breakthrough, but few others came close.

Greaves, who dead-heated for the Nunthorpe Stakes in 1997, was the only woman jockey to have won a Group 1 in Britain until Turner won both the July Cup, on Dream Ahead, and the Nunthorpe on Margot Did in 2012.

Greaves rode predominately for one trainer. Sammy Jo Bell’s breakthrough in the Shergar Cup did not lead to many outside rides. Similarly Lizzie Kelly’s Grade 1 and big handicap success and competence has brought few opportunities outside her own stable.

Over jumps in 1987, Gee Armytage became the first female jockey to win a race at a non-amateur festival and won two races that year, the Kim Muir Challenge Cup, and the Mildmay of Flete Challenge Cup.

How much further on are we, 30 years later, especially in British jump racing.

Nina Carberry and Katie Walsh can’t be used as examples as they from famous racing families and from the beginning, were granted the backing of top stables to show their talents. No one would argue they are not a match for any male, but they got the opportunities to prove it.

Rachael Blackmore made an unexpected breakthrough in the professional ranks this season. No one would now dismiss her chances because she was a woman. Look at her duel with Barry Geraghty at Navan before Christmas – Glenloe v Call the Taxie, she gave away nothing in the head-to-head.

While Julie Krone, who has spoken out against the allowance, and Rosie Napravnik made it to the top in the US, and competed as equals in the classic races, they are two among many thousands.

If a quarter of the graduates of RACE are female, they should have made more of an impact on the Irish scene. Perhaps the allowance should have a limit like any claim. Hit 50 winners and you are back on equal terms and see how it goes once

But let’s watch and see, let the French be the guinea pigs. Assume the French are conducting an experiment for a few years. If the percentage of girls getting rides and winners is still small, that will be more interesting. Then, ladies, we do have a problem.