7/15/2004

The 'Lady' could Ride

The lady could ride.

With the recent announcement that Julie Krone will in all likelihood not ride in races again, it is worth reflecting once more upon the Hall-of-Famer’s remarkable career: during Round 1, when she became the winingest lady jockey of all-time and only female to win a Classic, per Colonial Affair’s victory in the 1993 Belmont Stakes, and Round 2, when she returned from premature retirement, apparently better than ever, to be one the highly competitive West coast’s leading jockeys, who last fall became the first of her sex to win a Breeders’ Cup race, per the then unbeaten (and actually unbeaten while she was riding her) Halfbridled.

Most punters eschew female riders, except when they’re claiming the maximum bug-allowance on out-and-out front-runners, or perhaps a classy old speed horses, with problems, that veterans would normally take hold of, because time after time the weaker sex just are not strong enough in the finish and cannot get hold of a horse like a stronger man. But Julie Krone was as fierce a competitor as anyone and certainly the equal to most of her male rivals in a tight finish. Indeed, as leading rider one year at Saratoga during phase one of her career, race in race out she represented better value than anyone, frequently riding 5 or more winners on the card…..giving the proverbial 110%, regardless of whether the horse she was riding was a cheap claimer or of Stakes caliber.

Race riding requires extraordinary fitness, besides balance and split-second judgement. However great horsemen seem to also possess a certain ‘special and natural’ affinity or communication with their charges that can often be observed by watching how perfectly relaxed they and the horses that they’re riding are during a race. Running into the clubhouse turn, with 1200 lbs of pent-up fury under one is not an easily controllable situation. But one seldom saw the likes of Willie Shoemaker, Yves St. Martin, Lester Piggott or Angel Cordero fighting free-runners. And, just as today Pat Day, Frankie Dettori, Edgar Prado etc. win more races (especially big ones) than most of their contemporaries, Julie Krone too, despite her diminutive frame, seemed to be master of the situation at all times, when in the saddle.

Such confidence is infectious and enables a highly-strung animal, via soft hands and a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’, to relax and produce their best effort. So when punters, who’d backed a Julie Krone ridden horse, saw their choice looming, on the bridle, as the field exited the back-stretch, they had every reason to feel confident too……in the knowledge that a) they’d expended the minimum of energy to get there, and b) nobody was going to out ride them from that point to the wire!

Julie was a great one…..she’ll be missed.