The first thing I remember wanting to be when I grew up was a jockey. Well, that obviously didn’t happen, but I wish there was a “fantasy jockey” camp, similar to what they have for baseball. He would be the first to sign me up!
Being a jockey was not a traditional career for a woman when I was growing up, and it still is today. About 10% of professional Thoroughbred riders are women; the Department of Labor defines a non-traditional field for women as one in which 25% or less of the employees are women.
As in other male-dominated fields, the women who pioneered racing faced many challenges. The first female jockey to participate in a pari-mutuel race was Diane Crump, in February 1969 in Hialeah, but she was not the first to try. When Penny Ann Early attempted to enter three races at Churchill Downs in 1968, she was prevented from entering because the other jockeys boycotted the races. Barbara Jo Rubin faced not only boycotts, but bricks being thrown through her trailer window when she entered a race at Tropical Park in January 1969. However, Rubin became the first female jockey to win a race. on February 22 of that year when he won at Charles Town. Rubin was forced to retire about a year later due to injuries; however, in her brief career of 89 races she won 22 times and won 20 more times. Diane Crump made history again in 1970 when she became the first woman to participate in the Kentucky Derby. She won over 230 races before retiring in 1985.
Although the number of women riders is still quite low, they compete in a very different environment than the pioneer women riders. The first female jockeys faced prejudice and hostility from their male colleagues, who did not want women competing against them. Men sometimes cut them down or committed other violations, which were ignored by career officials. They would even cut them with their whips! (The irony of this is that one of the concerns of the male cyclists was that they felt racing was too dangerous and that women would get hurt.)
Diane Crump was invited to compete in a match race in Puerto Rico. The rider riding against her did everything in his power to knock her off her mount, even grabbing the saddle cloth, pulling her foot out of the stirrup, and grabbing her reins. Crump fought back by hitting him over the head with her whip, but she ended up winning the race by a length. However, the women in the crowd cheered Diane, cursed and threw rotten tomatoes at the male jockey.
Early female horsemen also faced opposition from horsemen’s wives, who were uncomfortable with women seeing their men in various states of undress, even though changing rooms were separate. In fact, there were no women’s locker rooms: women often had to change in horse trailers and couldn’t even shower until they returned to their hotel rooms at the end of the day.
Getting good mounts was also a challenge, as many owners and trainers did not want their horses to be ridden by a woman. Sometimes female riders were pressured into exchanging sexual favors for a mount. When they did get mounts, fans often harassed them on the track or “beat” them when they were pushed in the saddle by trainers.
The tide began to turn in the 1970s at the small Eastern race tracks, the “minor leagues” of racing, when the dedication and work ethic of women riders stood out against those of men. Women began to gain acceptance, and to gain more and better mounts throughout the country.
The most successful female jockey is Julie Krone. He began his racing career in 1981 and won 3,454 races before retiring in 1999. At the time of his retirement, he had earned more than $81 million in prize money and was ranked 16th in earnings on the all-time list for all cyclists. She retired in 2002 and continued to win, ending her career with 3,704 wins and over $90 million in earnings. In 1993, Krone became the first woman to win a Triple Crown Race, when she rode the 13-1 Colonial Affair to victory in the Belmont Stakes. She is the only woman to win a Breeder’s Cup race. She accomplished the rare feat of riding six winners in one day. She is the only female cyclist in the Racing Hall of Fame, inducted in 2000.
Krone “debunked” the idea that women weren’t tough or strong enough to handle massive animals in a dangerous sport. At 4’10” and 105 pounds, she was small even by jockey standards. However, her size didn’t stop her from winning races, coming back from injuries that would have ended other riders’ careers, or picking fights and wrestling matches. free with male riders who had wronged her.
Following in the footsteps of Krone and other pioneering jockeys, more and more women are competing successfully and facing far less prejudice and resistance than women did in the early days. (Although it still happens.) On March 26, 2009, young jockey Maylan Studart won her 40th race with a win at Aqueduct, moving from apprentice to journeyman. Three of the seven horsemen she defeated that day were women! Aqueduct currently has five female jockeys competing at the track. John Lee of the New York Racing Association stated that “I don’t think we’ve ever seen that many talented women racing here at one time. And when they’re racing in New York, they’re racing in the major leagues.” “
I hope to see many more women competing as successfully as riders. (And I’m still waiting for that fantasy hockey camp!)
© Koval Associates LLC