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Julie Krone: Women Jockey who Won the Maximum Horse Races
 Julie
Krone said "Whether you’re a girl or a boy or a Martian, you still have to go
out and prove yourself again every day,".
Julie Krone won 3,704 horse races in her time, most wins for a woman and first
woman to win a Triple Crown race (1991 Belmont Stakes with Colonial Affair) and
Breeders’ Cup race and first in thoroughbred racing Hall of Fame. Her mounts
earned over $90 million back when stakes weren’t nearly what they are today.
Julieann Louise "Julie" Krone was born on 24th July 1963 at Benton Harbor,
Michigan USA. She is a retired American jockey now. In 1993, she became the
first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she captured the Belmont
Stakes aboard Colonial Affair. In 2000 she became the first woman inducted into
the National Museum of Thoroughbred Racing and Hall of Fame. She has also been
honored by induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame and Cowgirl Hall of
Fame.
Her mother, Judi, was a prizewinning show rider, and Julie was only 5 years old
when she began winning horse shows in the 21-and-under division. At age 14 she
watched on television as 18-year-old Steve Cauthen won the 1978 Triple Crown and
set herself the goal of becoming a jockey. She worked for a trainer in 1979 and
the next year won 20 races on Michigan’s fair circuit. Krone quit high school in
her senior year to focus on riding.
After spending her childhood as an accomplished show horse rider at Western
Michigan competitions, Julie Krone was inspired by the career of Steve Cauthen
to become a professional Thoroughbred jockey. She made her debut as a jockey on
Jan. 30, 1981, at Tampa Bay Downs in Florida, on a horse named Tiny Star. She
won her first race on Feb. 12, 1981, also at Tampa Bay Downs, aboard Lord Farkle.
Within a few years her success made her a well known racing personality. Krone
was the only woman to win riding championships at Belmont Park, Gulfstream Park,
Monmouth Park, The Meadowlands and Atlantic City Race Course.
By 1987 she had become the first female leading rider at major racetracks,
winning at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands, both in New Jersey. She won six
races in one day at Monmouth and five at the Meadowlands, tying records at both
tracks. She retained the leading riding title at Monmouth through 1989 and at
the Meadowlands through 1990. On June 5, 1993, Krone made horse-racing history
as the first woman to win the Belmont Stakes, one of the U.S. Triple Crown
races. Her Belmont victory, aboard 13-to-1 long shot Colonial Affair, made Krone
the first woman to win any of the Triple Crown races.
 Following her 1993 Belmont triumph, Krone continued to win titles on the New
York–Florida circuit, having particular success at Gulfstream Park in Florida.
She retired in 1999, having won more than 3,500 races. In 2000 she became the
first woman inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame. Krone
returned to racing in 2002, and in October 2003 she became the first female
jockey to win a Breeders’ Cup race. She retired from competitive racing again in
2004, but she returned for one non-exhibition race in 2008. Her autobiography,
Riding for My Life, was published in 1995.
She would go on to make appearances on "The Late Show" with David Letterman,
"The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno, and appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated
for the issue of May 22, 1989, one of only eight jockeys so recognized (the
others are Willie Shoemaker, Bill Hartack, Eddie Arcaro, Johnny Longden, John
Sellers, Robyn Smith and Steve Cauthen). In 1993 she received an ESPY Award as
Female Athlete of the Year.
Krone retired for the first time on April 18, 1999, with a three-winner day at
Lone Star Park, near Dallas. She embarked upon a broadcasting career in horse
racing. From 1999–2000 she worked as an analyst for TVG Network, then worked as
a paddock analyst for Hollywood Park from 1999–2002. She came out of retirement
at Santa Anita Park in November 2002. After a good start to the 2003 season, she
fractured two bones in her lower back and spent the next four months recovering.
She returned to lead the 2003 Del Mar jockeys in purse earnings, then went on to
become the first woman jockey to win a Breeders' Cup race when she rode
Halfbridled to victory in the 2003 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa
Anita.
On December 12, 2003, just weeks after her Breeders' Cup win, she broke several
ribs and suffered severe muscle tears in a fall at Hollywood Park Racetrack.
Though not fully recovered from her injuries, Krone attempted to come back on
February 14, 2004, at Santa Anita Park, but failed to win in three races. She
did not ride again; on July 8 of that year, she made a statement in which she
did not officially retire, but strongly hinted that she would never race again.
 Because of her success in the face of severe injuries sustained while racing,
Krone was named by USA Today as one of the 10 Toughest Athletes and was honored
with the Wilma Rudolph Courage Award by the Women's Sports Foundation. Krone
also had been inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Fort Worth, Texas, and
is a member of the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. In October of 2013 she was
inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, N.Y., where she
joins such iconic individuals as Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, Ella Fitzgerald,
Georgia O'Keeffe and Billie Jean King.
In 2001 Krone married Jay Hovdey, executive columnist for the Daily Racing Form.
She gave birth to their daughter Lorelei Judith Krone in 2005. (Hovdey also has
a son, Ed, from his previous marriage.) Some other relatives which Krone stays
close with are her brother Donnie Krone, father Don Krone, and nephew Danny
Kauffman. Her mother, Judi Krone, was an accomplished equestrian who died a few
days before Christmas of 1999.
Apart from motherhood, Krone's second retirement from riding has been occupied
as a racing broadcaster, a motivational speaker, and an instructor in the
discipline of natural horsemanship. Krone made a brief "comeback" of sorts in a
sanctioned betting race at Santa Anita Park on October 18, 2008, while competing
against seven other retired Hall of Fame jockeys: Gary Stevens, Pat Day, Chris
McCarron, Jerry Bailey, Angel Cordero, Jacinto Vasquez and Sandy Hawley. Krone
also rode to victory on Invincible Hero in the Leger Legends for famous retired
European jockeys at the world-renowned St Leger Festival, Doncaster Racecourse
(UK), on 7 September 2011.
Video
Dated 13 November 2013
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