Betty Lane Holland

The Orphan Foal Betty Lane Holland

Reared on a bottle when his mother died, the orphan foal never grew as strong and handsome as his friends. So instead of becoming a racehorse in the big city he was sold to a farmer for country racing. Yearning to be famous, he only had one minor race win and then because of drought he was re-sold. Fate returned him to the Stud where he had been born to become a hack for the owner's granddaughter and became a hero when he saved her from a bushfire. The stud owner who had formerly despised the unattractive orphan foal then cared for him for life declaring him 'the best horse I have ever bred'. Author, Betty Lane Holland was editor of The Australian Horse and Rider magazine for five years and New South Wales editor of Hoofs & Horns for another five years until a career change when she broke through the ban on race horse trainers to become the first woman in the world to win a major training premiership. After leading the New South Wales Central Western Districts trainers premiership for three consecutive years she became the first woman ever licenced to train at Randwick and the first woman to be granted a No. 1 licence, a position she held for 15 years until her retirement.