Person of the Week: Julie Krone

Oct. 31, 2003 -- Julie Krone is not an unfamiliar person to many people. But she caught our attention this week because we thought she had retired. As it turns out, we were not paying close enough attention and she was becoming a winner all over again. She certainly has the guts to do it.

Krone, on horse Halfbridled, won a Breeders Cup last Saturday at Santa Anita, Calif. She was the first woman to do so. It was a very good win for a woman whose whole career has been about joy, accomplishment and pain.

"Shakespeare said there's no secret so close as that of a person and a horse, and no truer words could ever be spoken because of the little tiny innuendos that go on when someone leads a horse or walks a horse or rides a horse," Krone said.

Krone's last major victory was in the summer of 1993 when she won the Belmont Stakes, the only woman to win a race in the Triple Crown.

A couple of months later in a race at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Krone was up on Seattle Way and into the final stretch when the horse in front of her swerved.

It was a very bad fall — and she had had many.

"Broke my rib over my heart, and I got a cardiac contusion and I snapped my head back, I broke a little bone in my neck, had a bad concussion and I cracked my hip," Krone said.

The doctors said had she not been wearing a protective vest, she might have been killed.

For Krone, it was another long recovery. She'd go down to the barn just to smell the hay and hear the sound of the horses eating in their stalls. "I was so homesick for the racetrack and so homesick for the horses," Krone said.

Born to Ride

Riding has been in her blood from the beginning — she began riding at age 3 in Benton Harbor, Mich.

Her mother was a riding instructor. One day while trying to sell a horse she put Julie on its back to show how gentle he was. Julie never got off a horse. She was winning competitions when she was 6. She dropped out of high school to become a jockey.

She had it all: The mental toughness, the aggressive temperament. And as hard as it was for a woman at the track, she had the perseverance.