Yes, She Can: Female Jockey Representation in America's Elite Races

From Anna Lee to Rosie, Diane to Julie, women have broken through and become part of the American jockey colony at every level. The journey has been one of grit, shattered glass ceilings, and high-stakes victories, fifty years of progress that have made history in a multitude of ways. 

While Julie Krone remains the only woman to win a Triple Crown classic—her historic 1993 Belmont Stakes win aboard Colonial Affair—pioneers like Patti Cooksey and Rosie Napravnik have continued to prove that strength and strategy know no gender.

Kentucky Derby

While Diane Crump was not the first woman to receive a jockey’s license—that honor belonged to Anna Lee Aldred in 1939—she was the first to get a leg up in the Kentucky Derby. She became the first woman to ride in an American pari-mutuel race on Feb. 7, 1969, riding Bridle ‘N Bit to 10th place in a nine-furlong race for three-year-olds at Hialeah Park in Florida. A month later, she got her first win. A year later, she earned the chance to ride in the country’s biggest race.

Preakness Stakes

Patricia Cooksey, also known as Patti or PJ, started her career at Waterford Park (now Mountaineer Park) in New Cumberland, W. Va., in 1979. By 1985, she had been leading rider at Turfway Park three times and was the country’s leading female jockey. She was tapped to ride Tajawa, winner of the Ocala Breeders’ Stakes and second in the Lexington Stakes, in the 1985 Preakness Stakes, making her the first woman to ride in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. 

Breaking from post 2, the 20-1 Tajawa was third early, but was outgunned after six furlongs, falling back to sixth at the wire. Even though she did not win, Cooksey was thrilled at the opportunity to become the first woman to ride in the Preakness Stakes. “Let’s say this was one small step for womankind, and one giant step for horse racing,” she told the Baltimore Sun’s Alan Goldstein. 

Both Andrea Seefeldt and Rosie Napravnik followed in Cooksey’s footsteps at Pimlico, with Napravnik and Mylute again recording the best finish of all, 3rd behind Oxbow in 2013.

Belmont Stakes

Though the Belmont Stakes ranks as the oldest of the three Triple Crown races, the race did not see a woman ride in the Test of the Champion until Julie Krone’s mount on Subordinated Debt in 1991.

An accomplished show rider in her youth, Krone started riding professionally with a mount on Tiny Start at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 30, 1981; nearly two weeks later, she won her first race. She won multiple leading rider titles at tracks like Belmont, Gulfstream, and Monmouth, but was a decade into her career before she was named to ride Subordinated Debt in the 123rd Belmont Stakes. 

The Halo colt had won the Withers Stakes in early May and then finished second in the Jersey Derby later that month before trainer David Monaci dropped his name in the entry box for the Belmont Stakes, with Krone as his rider. She already had ridden the colt in his two most recent starts and had been the leading jockey at Belmont Park, so she knew the track well. On June 8, 1991, she entered the starting gate on Subordinated Debt at 22-1. 

The 12-furlong Belmont Stakes was not the colt’s day, but even with his ninth-place finish, he made history, Krone galloping off into the sunset as the first woman to ride in that classic race. The next year, she was back with Colony Light, who finished sixth, but in 1993, her luck would change.

Hall of Famer Julie Krone became the first woman jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she rode Colonial Affair to victory in the 125th running of the Belmont Stakes on June 5, 1993. Krone had been working with the young horse since his juvenile season and had ridden him in all but two of his starts to that point. She was aboard when he was second to Virginia Rapids in the Peter Pan Stakes, a prep for the Belmont.

She gave the colt a patient ride over the mile and a half, making a move around the sweeping turn and powering to the lead in the long Belmont stretch. The margin for victory was 2 1/4 lengths, and Krone was in tears as she returned to the outrider. She had done it. She had become the first woman to ride a horse to victory in a Triple Crown classic. 

Nearly 20 years later, in 2012, Rosie Napravnik became the second woman to ride in the Belmont, finishing fifth aboard Five Sixteen, and then rode in that classic two more times before retiring in 2014. 

Kentucky Oaks

The Kentucky Derby’s famous sister, the Kentucky Oaks, has become one of the premier distaff races, a chance for three-year-old fillies to shine on one of the year’s biggest racing weekends. In 1993, the same year she made history as the first woman to ride a classic winner, Julie Krone logged another historic first with her mount in the 119th Kentucky Oaks. She rode Darley’s Quinpool, trained by Bill Mott, to third place behind the winning Dispute. 

Rosie Napravnik followed in Krone’s footsteps two decades later and succeeded the Hall of Famer in the record books with wins on Believe You Can and then Untapable in 2014. To date, she is the only woman to score in this filly classic. 

Breeders’ Cup 

In its four decades, the Breeders’ Cup has become a series of elite races that often determine the horses that will take home the end-of-the-year awards. Within a few short years of the inaugural Breeders’ Cup at Hollywood Park, the sport’s best women riders became part of the Championships’ history. 

Before she became the first woman to win a Triple Crown classic, Julie Krone made some noise in the 1988 Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs, riding in three races that day: second with Darby Shuffle in the Juvenile Fillies, sixth on Dr. Bizzare in the Juvenile, and fourth with Forty Niner in the Classic. Fifteen years later, she got her Breeders’ Cup victory with Halfbridled in the 2003 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, the first woman to pilot a winner at the World Championships. 

Following in Krone’s footsteps at the Breeders’ Cup was Rosie Napravnik, who won the 2012 Juvenile with Shanghai Bobby and the 2014 Distaff with Untapable, months after winning the Oaks with the daughter of Tapit. 

Krone and Napravnik are two of the 12 women who have ridden in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, with Donna Barton, Hollie Doyle, Rachel King, and Chantal Sutherland among the others who have had their turns in these elite races.