An Appreciation: How Diane Crump Smashed A Paradigm, With A Little Help From Some Friends

[Wandering Eyes]

When Diane Crump died last week at the age of 77, the tributes and obituaries penned in her honor naturally led with the pioneering accomplishment that, more than five decades ago, she was the first woman to ride against men in a North American pari-mutuel horse race.

Today, nearly 57 years from that landmark achievement, it can be difficult to grasp just how challenging and arduous a breakthrough that was.

It wasn't, for example, just a matter of some trainer deciding, “This young lady can horseback a little bit. I think I'll name her on a mount.”

Crump, then 20 but already with six years of experience exercising Thoroughbreds, was able to compete in the seventh race at Hialeah Park on Feb. 7, 1969, thanks not only to her own ability, confidence and perseverance, but also because of the help and effort of fellow racetrackers who might not have known Diane personally, but definitely acted as friends standing up for what they knew was right.

In the 18 months prior to Crump's historic ride, other women had tried to break the barrier. Olympic equestrian Kathy Kusner applied for a jockey's license in Maryland in 1967. But it wasn't until she sued that state's racing commission under the Civil Rights Act and won her court case in 1968 that she was granted the piece of paper she needed to get into a starting gate.

Although Kusner later did race, a broken leg sustained in a sport-horse competition shortly before her anticipated on-track debut prevented her from being the first woman to race.

As Kusner's litigation was playing out, Penny Ann Early was attempting to crack the ranks in Kentucky. Three times she made it onto a Churchill Downs overnight in November 1968. Three times the jockeys there threatened to walk off the job because they didn't want to work alongside a woman.

“They're calling themselves men, but I have no respect for them as riders or as males,” Early told The New York Times.

Early's first horse got scratched when the track came up muddy, momentarily avoiding a showdown. Three days later she was named to ride another, but when the jockeys again threatened to vacate their mounts, the trainer caved to peer pressure and replaced her on the morning of the race.

On Nov. 21, 1968, Early seemed poised to ride in Churchill's fourth race. But this time, when the 11 jockeys scheduled to ride against her all bailed, the track's stewards and management thought the best course of action would be to try and nip the potential work stoppage in the bud.

Churchill Downs | Coady Media

As trainers and track management scrambled to line up replacements (two riders who rarely landed mounts were, in fact, willing to race), Churchill moved the fourth race to the ninth on the program, cognizant that, at the very least, this constant threat of boycotts was bad for the business of betting.

But by 10 minutes before the eighth race, with too few men willing to compete, Early found herself alone in the corridor leading to the paddock (after having donned her silks in the film room) when she heard the public address system blare that the day's final race would be cancelled.

The track announcer had been specifically instructed to tell the fans that no other jockeys were available to ride other than Penny Ann Early. The New York Times reported that this announcement “infuriated the crowd of 5,000, which hurled derisive insults of 'Chicken!' and 'Yellow Belly!' at the male jockeys as they rode onto the track for the eighth race.”

The Times also reported that some members of the Churchill riding colony decided that snubbing Early wasn't enough.

Later that evening, they found out at which restaurant Early was eating dinner with her attorney as they discussed possible legal action. The jockeys had a funeral wreath of white carnations delivered to her table, along with a card that said, “Best wishes for your continued success and happiness. Your mealy-mouthed friends in the room!”

 

Would Florida Be First?

So that was the national atmosphere when, two months later, two different women–Crump and Barbara Jo Rubin–were trying to get their riding careers started in Florida.

By mid-January 1969, Rubin looked like she might be the first to make history. This time though, the Tropical Park jockeys balked at riding against her for a different reason: The horse she was named on was believed to be a bleeder and allegedly had a reputation for lugging in. “How could a woman jockey possibly control such an unruly animal?” went their not-very-sound argument.

Citing safety concerns–Rubin's, not theirs–the Tropical jockeys said en masse that they didn't want Rubin to race for her own protection. The horse's connections bowed to pressure and replaced her with a male rider.

Rubin did not get to ride at that meet, but the stewards at least didn't buy the riders' protectionism puffery. Each of the jockeys who had threatened to boycott got fined $100 each (almost $1,000 in today's dollars) and had their actions referred to the Florida Racing Commission.

By Jan. 31, perhaps weighing potential further damage to their wallets against the overblown harms they imagined might befall a female jockey, representatives of the South Florida colony met with the Hialeah stewards and track officials and agreed that they would not boycott if a woman was named on a horse that was sound and (in the men's opinion) able to be handled by her.

Aerial view of Hialeah Park | Getty images

Crump, who had been breaking horses out of the gate and exercising them alongside those same jockeys in the mornings for several years, had, at the start of that meet, already been administered a “riding test” under the watchful eyes of the Hialeah stewards, who ruled that they would allow her to race twice as a probation before deciding whether to issue an actual jockey's license.

Crump was named to ride a 4-year-old filly on Monday, Feb. 3, but that entrant failed to draw in off the also-eligible list. The trainer said he would name her again when the filly's race later came up in the condition book, so Crump thought her next chance might come in about two weeks.

But on the morning of Friday, Feb. 7, Crump, much to her surprise, picked up the sports section of a Miami paper only to learn that another trainer, Tommy Calumet, had named her to ride that very afternoon on his recently claimed 3-year-old, Bridle 'n Bit, who figured to go off as the longest shot in a full allowance field going nine furlongs.

“My wife was the one. She owns the horse,” Calumet later explained to the New York Daily News. “She said, 'Put the girl on or I'll get another trainer.'”

 

Pressure at Post Time

Beyond that (presumably) humorous retort, Calumet explained that the main reason the couple thought that naming Crump was a good idea was that there would be less pressure for the 20-year-old to make her debut on an unlikely long shot than if she were named to ride on a more certain betting choice.

“She'll ride eventually,” Catherine Calumet said she had reasoned to her husband, according to the Daily News story. “I felt sorry for her.”

Even though the pari-mutuel expectations had been dialed down, the publicity for Crump's pending feat remained considerably high.

And half the riders in the race still balked at riding alongside her once they found out.

The Hialeah meet at that time was routinely covered by all of South Florida's major newspapers, most of the New York dailies, and the nation's two major wire services. Yet none of those news outlets gave a full account of which riders backed out.

Several papers though, reported that Ron Turcotte and Angel Cordero Jr., were the two most prominent refusals.

Turcotte was four years away from riding into immortality with the mighty Secretariat. Cordero had just led North America in victories for the 1968 season.

But the South Florida riding corps in 1969 was flush with available jockeys, and replacements were seamlessly engaged to pick up the vacated mounts.

Others offered Crump support in small ways. Jockey Danny Gargan–who would die tragically in 1975 at age 31 and is the father of the present-day trainer with the same name–lent Diane his riding tack.

“Why not? She's a real good kid,” Gargan told The New York Times.

Lacking private space in the all-male jockeys' quarters, Crump was given a room in Hialeah's administration building to change into her red-and-white silks.

Two police officers escorted Crump to the paddock as the 4:19 p.m. post time neared, with an entourage of press photographers and TV news cameras shadowing her every step.

The attendance that day at Hialeah was 15,791, about average for a Friday in 1969. Remember, there hadn't been much advance notice that Crump would be riding that afternoon. But still, a track official estimated that a third of the racegoers–some 5,000 people–crammed into the area near the backyard paddock and walking ring.

That same official added that the only other crowd of that size he remembered flocking to watch horses being saddled was when the supremely popular Nashua ran in the 1956 Widener Handicap.

Diane Crump aboard Bridle 'n Bit (center) | Getty images

If Crump was anxious, she didn't admit it. Several news accounts noted that she forgot to remove her wristwatch for the race, and that she walked right by her trainer and his horse in the paddock, either not realizing where she was supposed to go or, more likely, being distracted by the hoopla.

Relatively speaking, Bridle 'n Bit was taking action at the windows. He had gone off at 95-1 against lesser company in a recent start against claimers and was stepping up in class to $5,000 allowance company.

One news story speculated he should have been 248-1 under those circumstances in the 12-hourse field instead of the 48-1 odds at which he closed, with much of that action likely attributable to two-dollar hunch plays or for souvenir tickets.

Calumet hadn't been able to claim the 10-pound apprentice allowance that the first-time rider was entitled to because he had named her to ride just that morning, so Crump had to lug an extra 12 pounds of weight above her natural frame of 104 pounds to meet the required 116 pounds dictated by the race conditions.

When Calumet gave Crump a leg up and numerous flash bulbs exploded in unison, Bridle 'n Bit kicked the back of his saddling stall and spun. But his jockey remained composed and focused.

There was a smattering of applause and, yes, a few catcalls aimed at Crump as the field paraded out of the paddock.

Very likely, only a few music aficionados noted that the track bugler improvised the traditional call to post by adding in a few bars of the old-timey show tune “Diane.”

 

Off and Running

In the starting gate, Crump's mount stepped into stall two alongside Craig Perret, whose horse had drawn the rail. As the field loaded, Perret imparted a bit of advice to Crump about Bridle 'n Bit, whom he had previously ridden and knew to be headstrong when galloping out.

Perret also kindly reminded Crump to get her goggles in place just before the race went off.

When the starter sprang the latch, Crump leapt forward atop Bridle 'n Bit, breaking in second and running with the leaders the first time past the stands.

Bridle 'n Bit got shuffled to the back of the pack through the first turn, but the rookie rider didn't shy from getting pelted with kickback along the inside.

Last down the backstretch, Crump urged Bridle 'n Bit on the far turn and into the lane.

She passed two horses to finish tenth, considering it a minor, in-race victory to surge past the eleventh-place rival by a neck in the final yards.

Crump would later say she at first didn't realize the applause she heard upon returning in front of the stands after the race was directed at her.

In another instant, she was mobbed by cameramen, microphones and reporters peppering her with questions.

Several news accounts noted that Crump didn't seem to know she was supposed to remove her saddle from her mount before going to the scale to weigh in, but she later disputed that notion.

“I got off and they just dragged me away,” she said with a touch of exasperation, referring to the media throng. “I didn't forget.”

Several news outlets reported that even though he had refused to ride against her, Ron Turcotte made it a point to seek out Crump post-race to shake her hand.

The New York Times led its coverage of the history-making day this way:

“Despite the cries of the prophets of doom, Diane Crump rode in the seventh race at Hialeah today–the first girl ever to compete against men on a Florida race track–and when it was over the grandstand was still standing.

“If she was inwardly nervous, it was not apparent in her riding,” the story later continued.

And how did Diane feel about it?

“It felt good out there. I think I'll be all right from here on out. I really think I can make it now,” she told The New York Times.

“The hard part is over now,” Crump added in Newsday's account of her paradigm-smashing feat.

The post An Appreciation: How Diane Crump Smashed A Paradigm, With A Little Help From Some Friends appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article