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Under Alert Level 1, the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame is now OPEN. Our hours are 10am to 3pm (Wednesdays to Sundays). We are closed on Mondays and Tuesdays (open by appointment only on these days).
Linda Jones
Inducted in 1990
Through a combination of a love of horses and a stubborn streak that wouldn’t accept the word “no”, Linda Jones became a national celebrity in the 1970s.
Sporting Category:
  • Thoroughbred racing
It was a celebrity status that was based on an uncommon talent for riding horses and her stubbornness made her the pioneer of women jockeys in New Zealand.

After being turned down for an apprentice’s licence because she was a woman, Jones persisted and eventually authorities bowed to the inevitable.

Her first winner was in August 1978 at Te Rapa, in October that year she rode 18 winners and by Christmas, she was second on the jockeys’ premiership.

She also raced successfully in Australia, when she was also the first woman, but her biggest moment came at Trentham in 1979 when she became the first woman to win a derby, on Holy Toledo.

Sporting Spotlight

Richard Hadlee

(1951 - )

It was no coincidence that when Sir Richard Hadlee was making his mark on the cricket fields of the world, so was New Zealand; that the national team’s days in the sun were in large part because of his efforts.
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New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame
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Dunedin 9016
Otago
New Zealand
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