Racing is known as the sport of Kings but if Group One winning jockey Nikita Beriman has her way, that won't be the case for much longer.
"Move over, the Queens are coming in now," Beriman said with a laugh.
And it's hard to argue.
The 21-year-old was the toast of Flemington when she won the Group One Emirates Stakes on Tears I Cry on the final day of the Melbourne Cup carnival.
In doing so she became just the second woman to ride a winner at the highest level in Australia following Clare Lindop's 2006 Adelaide Cup success on Exalted Time.
But setting this spring's achievements apart was the fact Beriman shared the spotlight with three other women riders.
Champion New Zealander Lisa Cropp partnered Sculptor to a tenacious victory in the Saab Quality a week earlier and Michelle Payne won a support race on Partiva on the Emirates Stakes card.
This year's Melbourne Cup also marked the first time two women rode in Australia's most famous race when Lindop partnered Dolphin Jo and Cropp Sculptor.
Paddy Payne, trainer and patriarch of Victoria's famous racing family, watched eight of his 10 children become jockeys, includingsix of his seven girls - Therese, Maree, Bernadette, Cathy, Michelle and Brigid, who tragically died from a heart attack earlier this year.
All of them have made their marks and the youngest, Michelle, was the first female apprentice to outride her claim in Melbourne which she did in the 2005-06 season.
"I think it's only a matter of time before a woman rides the Melbourne Cup winner," Paddy Payne said.
"Therese was one of my first to start riding and she was given a wonderful chance really.
"Maybe when she came along it was a bit of a novelty, her doing so well against the men.
"But if the males were thinking the girls weren't good enough, the Melbourne Cup carnival would have made them think again."
Hall Of Fame jockey Ron Quinton, who now works as a jockey liaison officer for Racing NSW and trains a small team at Randwick, also has no doubts women jockeys are making major inroads in increasing numbers.
While there has long been a school of thought male riders have an advantage because they are physically stronger, Quinton says it is skill and not strength that matters.
"Lisa Cropp, when she was in Australia some years ago, she had one of the loveliest set of hands on a horse you'd ever see," Quinton said.
"I've never been afraid to put a girl on a horse but some owners aren't that keen to have girls ride their horses, just as they're not that keen to put apprentices on sometimes."
There have been a number of women jockeys who have made their mark in Australia over the years including Queensland's Pam O'Neill, New Zealand's Linda Jones, Tasmania's Beverley Buckingham, and in Sydney Bernadette Cooper and Kathy O'Hara, who became the first woman to win the Sydney apprentices' title two seasons ago.
American Julie Kroner achieved a string of firsts and remains the only female to ride the winner of a leg of the US Triple Crown with her victory aboard Colonial Affair in the 1993 Belmont Stakes.
Next month Canadian Emma-Jayne Wilson will become the inaugural woman to take part in the annual International Jockeys' Championship at Happy Valley in Hong Kong.
On the eve of this year's Melbourne Cup, Lindop, tired of fielding media questions about the female factor in the feature race, declared a jockey's gender was of no consequence.
"The horses are the athletes, the jockeys are just the pilots. It shouldn't matter if you're a girl, boy, whatever. It really doesn't," she said.
"If you can ride a horse, anyone can do our job. You just have to have someone to have some confidence in you, give you the opportunity on these types of horses and really, anyone can do it."
Warwick Farm trainer Guy Walter agrees.
He has been a big supporter of O'Hara's and entrusted her with rides in Group One races, including the 2005 Epsom Handicap when she was runner-up aboard Johan's Toy.
"There is no reason why a woman can't do it if she's got the ability and the desire," Walter said.
"When you watch the three-day event at the Olympics, they don't have smaller fences for the women.
"I think people are more accepting now than they were but it's a personal thing and there is still resistance in some quarters."
Beriman said she had found it difficult at times and not everybody was supportive.
"Some trainers are very old school and have a belief it's a male dominated sport, the sport of Kings," Beriman said.
"You really have to work twice as hard being a female to get recognition.
"But I did ride for (Melbourne Cup winning owner) Lloyd Williams and that probably created an opportunity and made people go, 'wow, he's putting a girl on'."
She also revealed she was taunted by some parts of the Flemington crowd when legged aboard Tears I Cry prior to winning the Emirates and said the comments were directed at the fact she was female.
But for every negative, there is a positive and Beriman's was the messages of support she received after winning the feature race.
"I've had messages from girls everwhere saying 'what a huge thing, you are such an inspiration, you have given us girls someone to look up to'," Beriman said.
"That gave me tingles, I was just like, oh thank you!"
But she warned that while the tide seemed to be turning, there was much work still to be done.
"If you look at the ratio of males to females now there are a lot more of us coming through and I think it does create opportunities when you've got such good female jockeys going round such as Clare Lindop, Michelle Payne and Kathy O'Hara," Beriman said.
"But I don't think it makes it any easier on girls."
Paddy Payne believes all his daughters have been treated well by trainers and owners and given every opportunity to make the most of their abilities.
And he has enjoyed sharing the journey with them.
"We've had a lot of fun out of it," he said.
Given the results this spring, there should be plenty more to come.
But the last word goes to Quinton who says the key to women jockeys continuing to achieve is opportunity.
"It's still boy-heavy but there are a lot more girls than there used to be," he said.
"But it's like any jockey or apprentice, they've got to get support.
"It all takes time and it's hard to do it if you're not out there to do it. You've got to be given the opportunity."
Beriman and company appear to be making the most of theirs.
I really think this is going to be a new trend. women jockes in horse racing. Reason being twofold. first of all, the good ole boy igorance that a woman can't do a man's job, is being replaced by people who were rasied in a different generation where women were considered equal (harsh but true). Also, and probably more im portantly.. I'm not a woman so I don't know but I'm assuming it's easier for a woman health wise. A guy who is 5'6 has to damn near kill himself to staty at 110. whereas most women I know consider themselves fat at 110. I'm below 10% Body fat and I'm a shade under 160 and I'm 5'8. I could not imagine being 50 pounds lighter
