Cheltenham Festival 2012: Lucy Alexander ready to break down another barrier It's not a sport you can come out of unscathed, mentally or physically. There will be broken bones which can affect you in the long term and that may not be for everyone, particularly if you want to start a family in your twenties or thirties. You have to really want to do it. Lucy clearly does, she rides very well with the minimum of fuss and with plenty of balls and confidence - and she is making the breakthrough. She has earned the support of some very good trainers and that's paramount to her success. Like many instinctive riders Alexander grew up around thoroughbreds, near Fife, where her father trains 20 animals. She says: "I started off riding ponies. My father trained so I started riding racehorses when I was 12, then started point-to-pointing at 16. I rode a bit under rules as well, then turned professional in September. In between there were two abortive stabs at higher education: "I went to university twice, at Edinburgh. I did biology the first time and sports science the second. I didn't have the interest to be doing it for four years. Until May she had ridden only two winners from 69 rides and was an unlikely record breaker. Lorna Vincent's record of 22 wins had stood since 1980. "We weren't really sure how it would go," she says. We weren't sure whether, once people had to pay for me, I'd still get the rides. Only when "a journalist mentioned it" did she realise Vincent's record had fallen: "I appreciate I'll be getting more publicity than a lad in my situation because I'm a girl. You want people to be taking you for your riding and judging you on that. She says she has yet to encounter sexism: "I haven't had any prejudice. Some people have said - "It was a brave decision to turn pro," so maybe they thought at the beginning it wouldn't work out. There are a lot of girls now riding on the Flat - and young girls as apprentices, because of Hayley Turner and Cathy Gannon and a few others. They're breaking down the barriers in that way. But there aren't many over jumps. Obviously Nina Carberry and Katy Walsh in Ireland. They're amateur, and it's different over there, with all the bumpers [National Hunt flat races] being for amateurs. In Britain there just haven't been many. Scotland's first woman pro has been "knocked-out" from a fall but has mostly escaped injury. Her greater fear is that "in racing it's all about fashion - and people quickly forget about you when you get a fall." Armytage says: "I would say there is hesitation rather than prejudice [against women]. I think it is in the back of trainers" and owners" minds that they don't want a young girl smashed up on one of their horses. It is bad enough seeing a male jockey injured and I think it does play on their minds, but for the right reasons. An attractive book of rides awaits at Cheltenham. I think I have Riguez Dancer for Ferdy Murphy on Tuesday but he may not get in [qualify]. I have one in the Coral Cup for Jim Goldie then Charringworth in the Byrne Group Plate and De Boitron in the Grand Annual," Alexander said. I don't know yet whether Red Tanber will run [in the Jewson Chase.] Armytage remembers being booed and having paper cups thrown at her by Cheltenham punters who mistakenly thought she had "gone the wrong way" after her mount had been carried out at the second flight of hurdles. She says: "As "Choc" Thornton [the jockey] said about Cheltenham - you need a little bit more luck and a little bit more heart. I would advise her to walk the course with someone she trusts and enjoy that quiet time to ride the races in her head over and over again, as that can help too. She will love the atmosphere, she is flying, and if she rides a winner, which I believe she may well, on Du Boitron, she will be on top of the world. She'll never forget that experience and will want to repeat it again and again. The pioneer is ready.