“JOCKEY JACK.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 54, 7 June 1916, Page 7

“JOCKEY JACK.”

WOMAN MASQUERADER.

DISGUISED 12 YEARS AS HORSE-

TRAINER.

Under the sobriquet of “Jockey Jack,” May M'Doiialcl has‘for the past 12 years been masquerading as a man, arid for the last two year?; has been familiarly known in Albury (N.S.W.) by reason of her passionate fondness for horses arid greyhounds (writes the Albury correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph). That police action should he taken at this stage with a view to compelling her to again don women’s apparel has led to many expressions of surprise, especially as “Jockey Jack” declares that she will “not be alive if the worst comes to the worst.”

The interesting story “Jockey Jack” has supplied is that of an orphan s life of misfortune, coupled with a determination to succeed even at the cost of much strenuous -battling in the guise of a boy.

In .explaining how she came by the name “Jockey Jack,” this woman ( whose only betrayal of her sex to those unacquainted with her is her distinctly feminine voice) said that when she was working on an Upper Murray station there were two Jacks theie, and a.-, she rode a racehorse they called her “Jockey Jack.” She added ili/; she had won a hurdle race at

Tow bug on Velox. which started at 10 to 1. Speaking of her life, she said that she had been left an orphan in Melbourne, and that all her relatives were dead. When her mother uied she was reared in Horsham. I'rom about 7 years of age she had been thrown on the world.

When the police superintendent was asking “Jockey Jack” to change hei clothes she says she told him that it was impossible to take her out ol men’s clothes, as the life she was now leading suited her. She says that she further told him that she was a natural sport, and training and breakingin horses was her life. “1 ou know, she went on, “1 have been brought up to outdoor pursuit from a child, and to take me away from the animals 1 so dearly love will mean death to me. It will be a tenable blow to me if I am made to get into women’s clothes. No; I can’t do it.”

“How did you come to reach Albury?”

“Well,” she replied, “I was on the Upper Murray for six years, and got tired of station life, so T thought I would go to Albury to see a little more life.”

She was greatly interested in coursing, and was engaged in training dogs. By training horses and dogs and by now and again clipping horses, she was able to earn a comfortable living.

The police have given her a month in which to either change her clothes or leave the State, but she resolutely declares that she will do neither.