Hialeah Park made history on February 7, 1969, when Diane Crump became the first woman to ride in a parimutuel horse race. The moment proved so controversial that Crump required police escort through hostile spectators to reach the paddock. Though finishing ninth in a field of twelve, she returned to cheers from the crowd. Crump rode her first winner two weeks later and the following year broke another barrier as the first female jockey to compete in the Kentucky Derby.
Crump recently appeared as the featured guest on the season two premiere of the Boundless Podcast, hosted by jockey and veterinarian Ferrin Peterson.
During the interview, Peterson asked Crump about her early ambitions when being a female jockey wasn’t even considered a viable career path.
“Early on, all I wanted to do was be around horses. I wanted to ride, ride, ride, even if it was just to exercise them. I just had to be around them, and it wasn’t until I learned a little bit more and got familiar with everything that I knew I wanted to be a jockey,” Crump explained.
The pioneering jockey described the racing industry’s stark gender imbalance during the mid-1960s.
“When I first came around the track, I was the only woman doing anything,” she said. “I think there was one pony girl, and that was it–not even grooms or hotwalkers. I was it and it was a few years before you started seeing more girls show up.”
Crump revealed that obtaining her exercise rider license came relatively easily through connections, despite being technically illegal for her to be on the backstretch at age 14.
The path to becoming the first female jockey in a parimutuel race involved several near-breakthroughs by other women. Crump recounted how Kathy Kusner initially sued the Maryland Racing Commission and secured a license first, but broke her leg during a show-jumping competition at Madison Square Garden, sidelining her for six months.
Both Kusner and Penny Ann Early were galloping horses at Churchill Downs when Early received a mount. Male jockeys promptly boycotted the race, refusing to compete alongside her.
Crump then went to Florida, secured her license through court action, while Barbara Jo Rubin—working as an exercise rider—also obtained her license and was named on a mount before Crump. Once again, male riders boycotted.
The situation changed at Hialeah when stewards took a firm stance.
“The Hialeah stewards said they wouldn’t tolerate that, and that any jockey who boycotted a race so as not to allow women to ride would be suspended for the entirety of the meet,” Crump said. “Nobody wanted a fine, or to stop riding, so I was the third one to get named, and with that warning, the race went off without a hitch.”
Peterson dedicated the episode to Janet Mendez, one of the earliest female exercise riders who galloped and breezed horses throughout the Midlantic region and Florida. Mendez and her husband, Rene Mendez, trained horses together for more than 40 years.
The episode is available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
