Julie Krone

Jockey

• Born: July 24, 1963
• Place of Birth: Benton Harbor, Michigan

SPORT: Horse racing

Early Life

Julieanne Louise Krone was born on July 24, 1963, in Benton Harbor, Michigan. She grew up on a farm in the nearby town of Eau Claire. Her father was an art and photography teacher, and her mother, who was a former state equestrian champion, bred and showed Arabian horses and taught riding.

Krone always wanted to be around horses. She was first put on a horse when she was only two. At the age of three, she was making half-mile trips on her horse. By the time Krone was five, her mother was entering her in horse shows for contestants under twenty-one years of age. Krone won again and again. At the age of fourteen, she was riding in horse shows every summer and winning in every available category.

Professional Racing

In 1979, at only fifteen years of age, Krone rode in her first professional races at fairground tracks in Michigan. In December of that year, she dropped out of high school and moved to Tampa, Florida, to live with her grandparents and to seek an opportunity to race at the Tampa Bay Downs racetrack. Krone’s self-confidence and determination won her the help of trainer Jerry Pace, who arranged for her to compete. On Krone’s eleventh mount, she won her first race, and she won eight more times in her first forty-eight races.

Krone then met Julie Stellings, another person who would help her realize her dreams. Stellings was a former jockey who introduced Krone to many horse owners and arranged for her brother-in-law to become Krone’s trainer. Stellings also persuaded Chick Lang, an agent from Baltimore, to take Krone as a client. In Baltimore, Krone raced at Pimlico and two other Maryland tracks, Laurel and Bowie.

During one race at Laurel, Krone experienced the first of many injuries she would suffer as a jockey. She was thrown from her horse and broke her back. She spent two months in bed and thought that she would never race again. When she did return to the track, she went eighty races without winning. In the fall and winter of 1981, however, she recaptured her form, riding more than one hundred winners.

In 1982, Krone moved to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where she won more races than any other jockey, becoming the first woman to win a racing title at a major track. She performed the same feat the following year. She was making a mark in a sport that had always been dominated by men. To overcome the prejudice against women jockeys, Krone needed not only natural talent but also a strong will and a fighting spirit. On one occasion, the 4-foot 10-inch, 100-pound Krone was involved in a fight with a male jockey who had slashed her across the face with a whip during a race. Both jockeys were fined as a result of the incident, but Krone had shown that she was not going to be pushed around.

Although Krone was feisty in dealing with the horse racing fraternity, aggression was not the hallmark of her riding style. According to many trainers, Krone had a knack for getting a horse to relax and the ability to communicate with it. Legendary jockey Bill Shoemaker said that Krone had a sixth sense that enabled her to communicate with the horse. Krone’s friend and fellow jockey Richard Migliore pointed out that Krone’s success stemmed not from her aggressive attitude but from her patience.

In the mid-1980s, Krone left Atlantic City and began racing at three New Jersey tracks: the Meadowlands, Monmouth Park, and Garden State Park. Her success continued. In 1986, she earned $2.3 million, the highest earnings for a woman jockey that year. During the following year, Krone recorded 130 wins at Monmouth Park and 124 wins at Meadowlands, totals that were the most of any jockey at those tracks. In December 1987, she began racing at the Aqueduct track in New York City, where she became the first woman to ride four winners in one day. In 1988, her ability to coax the best out of her horses was confirmed yet again when she rode Gaily Daily, a 75-1 long shot, to victory in the Flower Bowl Handicap at Belmont Park, the most dramatic upset in racing that year. Also in 1988, Krone became the leading female jockey in history by riding her 1,205th winner. By 1992, she had ridden more than two thousand winners.

Krone was injured many times in her riding career. In April 1988, she fell from her horse and was so bruised that she could hardly move for three days. She recovered within a month, but only a few days after returning to competition, she took another fall and suffered a concussion. In a 1990 collision at the Meadowlands, Krone broke her left forearm and needed eight and a half months to recover. In August 1993, she sustained multiple fractures of her right ankle after falling from her horse on the final day of the Saratoga racing season. This setback came only a few months after her career reached another pinnacle. In June 1993, at Belmont Park, she became the first woman to win a triple crown race—the triple crown races are the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. Julie rode Colonial Affair, a 13-to-1 outsider, to victory in the Belmont.

Along with her success as a jockey, Krone suffered several serious injuries. Two months after her historic win at Belmont, she crushed her ankle and was kicked in the heart in an accident at Sarasota. In 1995, she went down again at Gulfstream Park and injured both her hands. Four years later, Krone retired from racing. In her farewell race, in 1999, she finished with three winners and two second-place finishes, capping a groundbreaking career that spanned nineteen years. In 2000, she became the first woman inducted into the Jockeys’ Hall of Fame.

In 2002, Julie came out of retirement. The following year she became the first female jockey to win a Breeders’ Cup event. However, later that year, she suffered another injury and unofficially retired in 2004.

After her second retirement, Krone worked as a racing broadcaster and an instructor of natural horsemanship, a combination of various forms of riding that promotes positive rapport through kindness and care for the animals. Krone also shifted her focus to motivational speaking, inspiring young women and riders through her personal stories.

Summary

Julie Krone combined her natural riding talent with unlimited dedication and ambition. Overcoming the prejudice against women that existed in the horse racing world, she forced her way to the top by winning nearly four thousand races and earning $81 million in career winnings. By the mid-1990s, she was not only the leading woman jockey in the country but was also considered by many to be the biggest attraction in racing.

Bibliography

Fernandez, Bernard. "Legendary Jockey Julie Krone Says the Door to Rosie Napravnik’s Return Is Always Open." Advocate. Capital City, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.

Hoffer, Richard. “Lady’s Day.” Sports Illustrated 99.17 (3 Nov. 2003): 98. Print.

Krone, Julie, and Nancy Ann Richardson. Riding for My Life. Boston: Little, Brown, 1995. Print.

“Krone, Julie.” National Women's Hall of Fame, www.womenofthehall.org/inductee/julie-krone/. Accessed 6 July 2024.

LaFontaine, Pat. Companions in Courage: Triumphant Tales of Heroic Athletes. New York: Warner, 2001. Print.

O’Neil, Dana Pennett, and Pat Williams. How to Be Like Women Athletes of Influence: Thirty-one Women at the Top of Their Game and How You Can Get There Too. Deerfield Beach: Health Communications, 2007. Print.

Scott, Jeff. "Julie Krone's Long Ride." Saratogian. Saratogian, 9 Dec. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.