On August 16th 1957 Rosanna Bonelli, a young Sienese daughter of a famous writer, raced in the Palio as the first woman jockey in the Nobile Contrada dell'Aquila. [1]

Palio di Siena

Sienese by birth, Bonelli had attended the riding school in Florence and during the fifties participated in various horse racing competitions. In 1957 he was in Siena, during the period in which Luigi Zampa shot the film La ragazza del Palio (with Vittorio Gassman and Diana Dors, watch the trailer here). During a break in filming, Bonelli managed to sneak into the entrance where the jockeys were present, and, with the complicity of the jockey Fernando Leoni, called Ganascia, managed to ride on horseback and make some laps on the tuff of Piazza del Campo. Randomness then wanted the protagonist's stunt rider to get injured: Bonelli proposed and was chosen as a substitute.

She raced first in a mock Palio race staged for the shooting crew, in place of the jockey of the "Pantera" contrade (unbeknownst to the film production) and then as a stuntwoman for Ms. Dors in the victory scenes, riding the mare Gaudenzia.
That helped Rosanna Bonelli's rise to local fame and to crown her dream to run in the real Palio race of August 16, 1957 racing for the contrade Aquila, her first and last race on Siena's scenic Piazza del Campo, and although she didn't finish in first place like the film's heroine, she was bestowed the title of honorary jockey by the contrada.
Bonelli took part in three prove (test Palios), winning two, and was officially marked with the nickname Diavola, although she is still known to all as Rompicollo, from the title of a famous operetta written by her father Luigi Bonelli (892-1954). At the Palio she set off in the back, but launched into a great comeback against Giorgio Terni, known as Vittorino del Nicchio. During the chase she hindered the Tore contrada (Rosario Pecoraro called Tristezza) and then, at the second curve of San Martino, she fell, dragged by Romano Corsini called Romanino della Lupa.

Presence at the Palio di Siena

Palio	Contrada	Cavallo	Note
16 agosto 1957	Aquila	Percina	(scosso)