Born in Hoby, Leicestershire on June 11, 1946, Jenny Pitman (née Harvey) was, prior to her retirement in 1999, a trailblazing trainer whose name is writ large in the annals of National Hunt history, at Aintree, Cheltenham and elsewhere. Pitman trained her first winner as long ago as 1975 but, on April 9, 1983, she made history when saddling Corbiere, ridden by Ben de Haan, to win the Grand National at Aintree. On March 15, 1984, she did so again when saddling Burrough Hill Lad, ridden by Phil Tuck, to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Thus, in a period of less than 12 months, she became the first woman to train the winner of both premier steeplechases run in Britain.
Both Corbiere and Burrough Hill Lad had won the Welsh Grand National at Chepstow the December prior to their historic victories and Pitman would win that race again with Stearsby, ridden by Graham Bradley, in 1986, for three successes in all. She also won the Cheltenham Gold Cup again, with Garrison Savannah, ridden by her son, Mark, in 1991, and the Grand National again, with Royal Athlete, ridden by Jason Titley, in 1995. On a less happy occasion, Pitman also saddled Esha Ness, ridden by the luckless John White, to ‘win’ the ‘Grand National that never was’ in 1993; the race was declared void and the result nullified after the majority of the jockeys failed to realise a false start had been called. Nevertheless, Jenny Pitman finished her training career just three shy of 800 winners.
Jenny doesn’t have much in the way of a social media presence, website or contact info online, though can be hired as an after dinner speaker.