Jedda Cutlack is the face of a new breed of greyhound trainers within the industry in the Sunshine State.
With an older male demographic usually training dogs in Queensland, the youthful Cutlack is blazing her own trail for the ladies and she is not there just to make up the numbers – she is competing with the leading kennels from around the state.
Cutlack is passionate about the welfare of her dogs and is keen to be a voice for the next generation, promoting the sport to young girls who aspire to follow in her footsteps.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, Racing Queensland is recognising the efforts of three hard-working and talented ladies from around the state with Cutlack representing the greyhound code.
To mark the occasion, RQ spoke to Samantha Collett, Gemma Hewitt and Cutlack about their recent achievements, the significance of International Women’s Day and what they hope to see for women in the industry going forward.
What does International Women’s Day mean to you and why do you think it’s so important to celebrate it?
I think it is important to celebrate and acknowledge what women are doing in the industry, especially seeing as racing is typically male dominated industries.
The more we can talk about and celebrate women’s achievements, hopefully we can get more women involved and it can be a level playing field.
In your time in the industry, how have you seen the growth of female participation and achievement?
I only have been in the industry for around four years but in my short time in it, I have seen a number of younger women and girls get their handles licence and start coming down and catching dogs.
There is a few of us now training dogs ourselves. I think I have seen a growth in that short time I have been around greyhounds.
Going forward, do you believe that female participation is on an upward trajectory and what more can be done in that space?
The growth I have seen in just a short time, I think it is going on an upward path.
I hope it can continue that way. It would be nice to do more and get more content out there to encourage the young people to be more hands on within the industry, particularly women.
Hopefully we can show through that women are being successful and we can do it.
Racing Queensland is proud to support International Women’s Day and its bid to create a gender equal world.
