WASHINGTON — Diane Crump, who in 1969 turned the primary girl to journey professionally in a horse race and a yr later turned the primary feminine jockey within the Kentucky Derby, has died. She was 77.
Crump was identified in October with an aggressive type of mind most cancers and died Thursday evening in hospice care in Winchester, Virginia, her daughter, Della Payne, instructed The Related Press.
Crump went on to win 228 races earlier than driving her final race in 1998, a month shy of her fiftieth birthday and practically 30 years after her trailblazing journey at Hialeah Park in Florida on Feb. 7, 1969.
Crump was amongst a number of girls to battle efficiently on the time to be granted a jockey license, however they nonetheless wanted a coach prepared to place them in a race after which for the race to run. Others had been thwarted when male jockeys boycotted or threatened to boycott if a lady was driving.
Images of Crump’s stroll to the saddling space at Hialeah present her protected by safety guards as a crowd pressed in on all sides. Six of the unique 12 jockeys within the race had refused to journey, Mark Shrager wrote in his biography, “Diane Crump: A Horse Racing Pioneer’s Life within the Saddle.” Amongst them had been future legends Angel Cordero Jr., Jorge Velasquez and Ron Turcotte, who 4 years later would journey Secretariat to win the Triple Crown.
However different jockeys stepped up, and because the 12 horses made their method onto the monitor, the bugler skipped the standard name to the put up and as a substitute performed “Smile for Me, My Diane.” Crump, on a 50-1 longshot known as Bridle ’n Bit, completed tenth, however the barrier had been damaged. A month later, Bridle ’n Bit gave Crump her first victory at Gulfstream Park.
She once more made historical past in 1970 by changing into the primary girl to journey within the Kentucky Derby. She gained the primary race that day at Churchill Downs, however once more her mount for the history-making race was outclassed. She completed fifteenth out of 17 on Fathom.
It might be 14 extra years earlier than one other feminine jockey would journey within the Derby, with solely 4 extra to comply with within the many years since.
The racetrack president at Churchill Downs, Mike Anderson, stated in a press release on Friday that Crump “might be without end revered and fondly remembered in horse racing lore.”
He famous that Crump, who had been driving since age 5 and galloping younger Thoroughbreds since she was a teen, “was an iconic trailblazer who admirably fulfilled her childhood desires.”
Chris Goodlett, of the Kentucky Derby Museum, stated “Diane Crump’s identify stands for braveness, grit, and progress.” He added: “Her willpower within the face of overwhelming odds opened doorways for generations of feminine jockeys and impressed numerous others far past racing.”
After retiring from racing, Crump settled in Virginia and began a enterprise serving to folks purchase and promote horses.
In later years, she took her remedy canine, all Dachshunds, to go to sufferers in hospitals and different medical clinics. Some with persistent sicknesses she visited usually for years.
Payne stated when her mom went into assisted residing a month in the past, she was already “quasi-famous” within the medical heart due to how a lot time she had spent there, and a “regular stream” of medical doctors and nurses got here to see her. One of many final folks to go to her was the person who mowed her garden.
Her daughter stated Crump would by no means take “no” for a solution, whether or not it was changing into a jockey or serving to somebody in want.
“I wouldn’t say she was as aggressive as she was cussed,” Payne stated. “If somebody was relying on her, she might by no means let somebody down.”
Late in life, Crump’s mottos had been actually tattooed on her forearms: “Kindness” on the left, “Compassion” on the best.
Crump might be cremated and her ashes interred between her dad and mom in Prospect Hill Cemetery in Entrance Royal, Virginia.
