Charlotte Budd

First Woman to ride in the Grand National (1977)

June 2010, on the farm, Somerset

b.1956, London

In 1977 when she was just 21 years old Charlotte Budd (then Charlotte Brew) became the first ever woman to ride in the Grand National at Aintree. This was due to a change in the law, the Sex Discrimination Act passed in 1975 enabled Charlotte to enter the race on her horse Barony Fort, the first woman to race in 138 years since the Grand National’s inception in 1839.

Return to Exhibition Tour