Female jockeys were once a rarity in the riders' change rooms.

But at country race meetings across northern Western Australia, they are now often finding themselves in the majority.

It is a rare sport where men and women compete in an even playing field against each other for the same prize money.

This season, women have taken out seven of the 10 cup races across the Pilbara, Kimberley and Gascoyne.

Last month, just a few months into her apprenticeship, 21-year-old Holly Nottle claimed the Port Hedland Cup on seven-year-old gelding Reginald.

"The feeling I can't really describe,"

Nottle said.

Women on the rise across Australia

Women are taking to the sport in record numbers, easily outnumbering men in racing apprentice programs at clubs across the country.

This year's WA apprentic

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