First Woman Inducted Into Racing Hall of Fame
Aug. 7, 2000 -- Julie Krone will become the first woman ever inducted into thoroughbred racing’s hall of fame today, taking her place among legends in her sport. But she downplays the gender issue, preferring to be called just a jockey who made it.
“I’m extremely happy and I take a lot of pride in being the first female. It’s a big compliment,” she said on the eve of her induction. “But being the first female isn’t what makes it special for me, it’s just the honor of making it to the hall.”
Riding Records
To call Krone, 37, a pioneer would be an understatement. Her 3,545 career wins and $81 million in prize money over 19 seasons are records for women. She was the first woman to win a Triple Crown race when she captured the Belmont Stakes aboard 14-1 shot Colonial Affair in 1993.
She also owns gender-less records. In 1993, she joined good friend Angel Cordero, Jr. and Ron Turcotte as the only jockeys to have won five races in one day at Saratoga Race Course in New York.
And that’s how Krone says she wants to be known: as a good rider. Period.
“I didn’t want to be the best female jockey in the world. I wanted to be the best jockey,” said Krone, who retired last year.
Others agree with her.
“I think most people in racing think of Julie as the first female rider who was a top rider, not just a top female rider,” said Ira Kaplan, an editor of the Daily Racing Form. “I don’t think anyone doubted that she could ride as well as any man.”
Racing Pioneer
Krone credits her late mother, Judi, with getting her involved in horses. It was Judi who climbed into a truck and drove Julie down to Churchill Downs in Kentucky so her daughter could become a jockey.
She even forged her daughter’s birth certificate because Julie, then 15, was too young to be admitted on the grounds at Churchill Downs. “We went to the grocery store, and she put a ‘7’ above the ‘5’ in my age and made a photo copy of it,” Julie recalled.
Julie Krone moved to Tampa, Fla. shortly thereafter to live at her grandmother’s house and ride at the Tampa Bay Downs Racetrack. Trainer Bud Delp gave her a break and let her ride, and soon Krone was moving up to the New Jersey circuit. By 1987, she had already won a riding title for having the most wins at a meet at both Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands.
Sometimes she heard fans yell things like, “Go home and wash the dishes,” but Krone downplays any discrimination she experienced at the track.
“Eventually I rode a lot, so I guess I didn’t have it that tough,” she said. “There were challenges, but I don’t think anybody has an easy time.”
Many of Krone’s predecessors had a harder fight. Male jockeys staged a one-day boycott of races that riders Penny Ann Early and Barbara Jo Rubin were scheduled to ride in at Churchill Downs and Hialeah in 1968. Rubin went on to become the first female jockey to win at a major U.S. flat track against male jockeys on Feb. 22, 1969.
Kaplan says there’s still discrimination in the sport. “I know a lot of trainers who are hesitant to put a woman on their horses because they dont’t think they’re as strong as men. … I think there are some female riders who aren’t getting as many chances.”
League of Her Own
No other woman — and few men — have been as successful as Krone, who overcame tremendous injuries on her blazing path to the hall of fame.
Just two months after winning the Belmont Stakes, she took a terrible fall off her horse at Saratoga Race Track in which she suffered a shattered right ankle, punctured elbow and a cardiac contusion from being kicked in her heart by a horse.
After more than a year of rehabilitation, Krone was ready to ride. Then she fell again in a disastrous accident on Jan. 13, 1995 when she was thrown from her mount and broke both her hands at Gulfstream Park in Florida. The injury sunk the Eau Claire, Mich. native into a deep depression, which was later diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder.
It wasn’t until 1997 that Krone competed again. And in her usual style, she continued to win. By February 1999, she had surpassed the 3,500 career wins milestone, becoming the first woman to do so.
“Right now, I can’t think of a female rider who reached the stature that she’s reached,” said Kaplan. “That tells you something right there as far as how good she was.”