Leonna Mayor: 'People have no idea what my life has been like - I've no reason to be ashamed'

This interview with rising TV star Leonna Mayor was originally published in July 2021 exclusively for Racing Post Members' Club subscribers, and has been made free to read for users of the Racing Post app and billed as our Sunday Read.

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As Leonna Mayor leads Sir Pascal towards a grassy paddock at his livery yard home in North Yorkshire, the horse suddenly stops at the sight of a large puddle. Like the handsome eventer, Mayor warns she has her own aversion to water.

"I've got a hard exterior – you won't find me crying when we start the interview," she states with a level of confidence that proves misplaced. What follows feels like a form of therapy as one of racing's most promising television performers bares her soul, sheds some tears and reveals a life story that makes her achievements look ever more laudable.

Mayor never quite took off as a Flat jockey, but with a microphone in hand she seems poised to dazzle on the sport's biggest stages. The 30-year-old has been broadcasting for a decade. Initially it was no more than a sideline. Now it is her profession. Among Mayor's many employers are ITV Racing and Sky, for both of which she has received deservedly flattering reviews. When you learn more about her, you realise those reviews and appointments really have been exceptionally hard earned.

Leonna Mayor looks admiringly at her horse PascalCredit: Lee Mottershead

Perhaps more than most sports, a person can be propelled far in racing by privilege or family wealth. Mayor had the benefit of neither.

She was raised on a troubled council estate in Stoke, where her father shunned her. She had to wait until her 51st mount to ride a winner but then steered home 30 more in a career that lasted just five years and ended for emotional reasons she has kept to herself until now.

If all that was not enough, she faced criticism over her decision to be pictured wearing underwear in a lads' magazine, while the snide comments have subsequently concerned not just how she looks but also how she sounds, for she now gets berated for her accent.

Yet although there has been some hostility to her emergence as a television regular, there has been much more positivity. Mayor has shown herself to be knowledgeable and hard-working. She has also proved savvy, not least when guiding the ITV audience towards Rohaan when he won at Haydock in May as a 33-1 shot.

Her star is in the ascendency and it is busy. As well as shifts for Sky and ITV, there are other regular jobs, including for William Hill TV, the platform that first offered her an avenue into a different world.

"In the early days I absolutely hated it," says Mayor. "I didn't feel confident and was anxious not to say the wrong thing. That was ten years ago. Now I don't want to turn work down because I'm so grateful for the chances I'm being given. It's not a greed thing. I don't need lots of money. As long as I can pay for him, I'm happy."

Leonna Mayor aboard her treasured event horse Pascal

The 'him' is a horse who causes her to make repeated 16-mile drives from her home near Leeds. He is the man in her life, the pampered pet on whose back she is becoming proficient at dressage, show jumping and cross-country. Until 2013 her equestrian skills were focused on a different discipline.

"For a long time I really did love being a jockey," says Mayor. "I missed it badly when I stopped, but I knew it was the right thing for me. If you're riding bad horses it's a crap job. You get on the horse knowing you're not going to win, so what's the point? That's how I was feeling and that's not the right mindset. I just didn't love it anymore.

"Kieren Fallon once told me the one thing I had in my favour was horses liked me and naturally ran for me. Perhaps that was half the reason I rode the winners I did and maybe it's a shame I didn't use the skill for longer. 

"The problem is when you're not winning it makes you disappointed. You start to feel you're not good enough. Then you do win on a horse but get replaced next time.

"At what point does it get easier? I had that question going through my head. From when the alarm went off I was just going through the motions. Now I wake up and look forward to each day."

Leonna Mayor: 'From when the alarm went off I was just going through the motions. Now I wake up and look forward to each day'

When previously talking about her decision to leave the weighing room, Mayor has cited the cumulative effect of injuries, including damage caused to an ankle in an October 2012 fall at Kempton, where a filly bucked her off soon after the stalls opened. There was more to it than that. A key motivation was the loss of her grandmother, Sheila, with whom she lived as a child for three years.

"People said watching me in races was the only thing that made her drag herself out of bed when she was dying of stomach cancer," explains Mayor, wiping tears from her eyes. "I was living in Lambourn and she was back home in Stoke. Nan was adamant she didn't want me to come back. I managed to get home and be with her when she died but I feel like I ought to have been there more.

"I missed important time with her that I should have had. When people ask me why I retired I tell them it was because I got injured. I've never spoken about it before but her death was a massive catalyst for me stopping riding. It took me a really long time to get over the fact she was dead."

Sitting on a plastic stool outside Pascal's currently unoccupied box, Mayor explains that those years living with her grandmother represent only one example of an unusual start in life.

Leonna Mayor: 'We had a very strange upbringing. I know a lot of people say that but mine was really strange. It was rubbish as well'

"We had a very strange upbringing," she insists. "I know a lot of people say that but mine was really strange. It was rubbish as well."

Mayor is the second oldest of five children. Her siblings are aged 34, 24, 18 and 12.

“The quickest, but still very long, version is my mum, Karen, had my older sister, Tanya, with a guy called Mark, who left her and disappeared off the face of the earth,” she explains. “She then had me with my blood father, but they soon split up. Mum then had my brother, Leon, with his dad, Dave, who was horrible. He knocked her about and killed himself during the second lockdown.

"She eventually left him, after which Mark – who by then was the father of two more kids – appeared out of nowhere, asking her to take him back. She agreed but Mark made it obvious he didn't want me or Leon around. We were constantly arguing, so I went to stay with Nan one weekend and ended up living with her.

"Mum and Mark had Mitchell, but when he was six months old Mark killed himself. Mum then met Kevin, my stepdad. He has been the only proper dad any of us have ever had. If I ever get married, I want him to give me away. He took on a woman with four kids and did everything for me. They had Emiliah together when Mum was 41. They're happy and everything is great."

It was not until the age of nine that Mayor met her blood father.

"I reached the point where I was asking, 'Right, where's my dad?'" she says.

She discovered where he lived and made contact in person. She initially got to spend time with him and enjoyed it. The clock, however, was soon ticking. "He stopped answering my calls and messages," she says. "I didn't want to keep feeling unwanted, so at the age of 12 or 13 I stopped trying."

Leonna Mayor in winning form at Brighton aboard Know No Fear (centre) in July 2012Credit: Alan Crowhurst

Mayor's love of horses was stimulated as a 15-year-old when her mother – "She worked so hard in different jobs to look after us; she would die for any of us" – and grandmother paid for riding lessons before then renting an Arab pony. It was a welcome diversion from school, many days at which she avoided through truancy triggered by bullying. "Girls are just cows, aren't they?" she asks rhetorically. "I've ended up okay though. Not being a bully clearly served me well."

It would not be the first time she was on the receiving end of unwanted behaviour. Associations with trainers like Phil McEntee, Jamie Osborne and David Nicholls delivered winners and happy days. Other memories are much less fond.

She remembers a morning when she and another rider were asked to partner a pair of two-year-olds. The young horses refused to leave the yard, causing the trainer to express his displeasure.

"He came into the yard effing and jeffing," recalls Mayor. "He grabbed the sleeve of my coat and literally pulled me off the horse. I walked out there and then. He called me a slut and a rat, ordering me back to the yard."

Leonna Mayor, pictured during a race at Kempton in January 2013Credit: Edward Whitaker

He was in a minority. As a professional jockey Mayor experienced more good than bad, although not everyone was welcoming.

"There are two jockeys – and thankfully only two – who very much believe women should be at the kitchen sink," she claims. "You could tell that from the way they behaved. Generally speaking though, the attitude of jockeys is very good. They all want each other to do well because they know hard it is."

She was reminded exactly how hard that autumn evening at Kempton when she lay on the ground with a busted ankle. Yet her first question to the paramedic concerned the state of her nose. Mayor is a beautiful woman – one who is blonde again after a dalliance with being a redhead – and that has been frequently noticed. 

When much younger she appeared in Argos catalogues. In the spring of 2013 she reached a rather different audience when agreeing to take part in photoshoots for the Daily Star and the now defunct Zoo magazine, on whose pages she posed wearing black underwear, prompting criticism from fellow jockey Kirsty Milczarek, who described her appearance as "a backward step for women in racing".

Leonna Mayor (centre) takes part in a millinery modelling photoshoot at CheltenhamCredit: Picasa

The tagline used then – "the world's sexiest jockey" – continues to be regurgitated but Mayor is adamant she has no reason to look back with embarrassment.

"I wasn't ever bothered about modelling," she insists. "The Zoo thing only happened because Racing For Change told me they were trying to get a new market interested in racing and Zoo wanted me for a photoshoot.

"I know the reasons I did it and I think they were the right reasons. It didn't do anyone any harm and I don't regret it. I didn't get my boobs out and never would do that. I hope to have children in the future and there's nothing they could find on the internet I would be ashamed of, nothing at all.

"I think because I'm a girl with a certain image I have to work harder. I still believe people look at someone like me and think, 'There's a bimbo'.

"I find it really offensive when people say I only get work on television because I'm pretty. It's not like I'm just standing there in front of a camera doing nothing. We all know people who have got jobs for the wrong reasons. I've got jobs because I've worked hard, proved myself and made things happen."

She has managed that with such success that ITV Racing bosses last year brought her into the squad, primarily as a pundit. At Epsom in June Mayor received her highest-profile assignment to date, while she will soon feature in ITV4's coverage of the Sky Bet Sunday Series.

Leonna Mayor interviewed chef Michel Roux Jr as part of her work for ITV on Derby day

"The Derby was amazing – and unexpected too," she says. "To be trusted to be part of the team on one of ITV's most important days felt amazing.

"I always thought being a jockey was the best thing I could possibly do but I think I've probably ended up in the perfect job for me. My goal now is to be a presenter – and everybody knows that because I make it quite clear!"

Given the mountain she has climbed, that goal seems eminently attainable. Mayor will likely continue to flourish, which will please her supporters and annoy her detractors. She reads their barbs and does not forget them but she will not let them beat her. There are no tears now – just steely determination.

"I've had very good feedback on social media, but it's the unpleasant comments you remember word for word," admits Mayor. "People have said I've got a horrible accent and that my voice could strip paint off walls. What does that even mean?

"Those people know literally nothing about me. They have no idea what sort of life I've had, which is one reason I wanted to do this interview. 

"I had a terrible upbringing. It wasn't my mum's fault but there were all kinds of crap. I don't dwell in the past though. I don't want to be reminded about how bad things used to be. I've had to do it all myself but I've made it work. I now just want to keep moving forward."

Read more from our Sunday series:

Sir Henry Cecil remembered: 'The public have always been fantastic to me and I really don't know why' 

Adrian Maguire: 'I couldn't borrow, borrow, borrow - I wouldn't sleep at night' 

'I take flak and it frustrates me - but I'm not going to wreck another horse' 

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