| BIOGRAPHY |
It wouldn't be easy if you had to choose a poster child for the woman's jockey movement but Diane Crump would certainly be a top contender.
Crump hailed from New England but the Crump family migrated to Oldsmar, Florida when she was a child. Oldsmar, happens to be the home of Tampa Bay Downs (know as Florida Downs back then) where Crump started doing chores at the track when she was around twelve. This was the beginning of her rise as one of the pioneer female jockeys in the country.
On February 7, 1969, under heavy police escort, the twenty year old Crump became the first woman to ride at a major American track. She rode Bridle 'n Bits to a 9th place finish at Hialeah Park that day. On March 1st she returned to Florida Downs, where she rode her first winner, that afternoon. A little over a year later she once again drew national attention, when she was the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby. That ride almost didn't happen, as Fathom's connections pulled the horse earlier in the week but reconsidered and ran the horse. He finished 15 out of 17, but Crump was again in the record book. To this day only a handful of female jockeys have ridden in that race.
In her early years, Crump raced all over the place, a lot of the races were novelty races, like the Lady Godiva Handicap at Suffolk Downs or some Battle of the Sexes promotions at other tracks. She would eventually become a regular rider on the Kentucky Circuit, before retiring in the mid eighties. After a few years as a trainer she returned to the saddle in 1992, where she primarily raced in Maryland. In her second career it doesn't look like she took many mounts, sticking mostly to baby horses, her final ride was in 1998.
After all was said and done Diane Crump, raced at more tracks, than most people knew about. She amassed 228 career wins, which included many stakes races. She would finish in the money but never would win a graded stakes race, in a career that spanned nearly thirty years.. .
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