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Diane Crump, the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby as a jockey, died this week at the age of 77.
Crump was diagnosed in October with an aggressive form of brain cancer and died Thursday evening at a hospice center in Winchester, Virginia, her daughter, Della Payne, told The Associated Press.
In 1969, she became the first woman to compete professionally in horse racing, and a year later she became the first female jockey in the Kentucky Derby. It would be another 14 years before another woman competed in this event.
Since then, only four others have raced there.
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Crump won 228 races before his last race in 1998, a month before his 50th birthday and nearly 30 years after his pioneering race at Hialeah Park in Florida on February 7, 1969.
Crump was one of many women who fought successfully at the time to obtain a jockey license, but they still needed a trainer willing to put them in a race and then have the race run. Others were thwarted when male jockeys boycotted or threatened to boycott if a woman rode.
Churchill Downs Racetrack President Mike Anderson said in a statement Friday that Crump “will forever be respected and fondly remembered in horse racing history.”
He noted that Crump, who had been riding horses since age 5 and galloping young thoroughbreds since she was a teenager, “was an iconic trailblazer who admirably fulfilled her childhood dreams.”
FAMOUS HORSE RACING JOCKEY WHO RID LEGENDARY SECRETARIAT TO TRIPLE CROWN DIES AT 84
The 149th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6, 2023, in Louisville, Kentucky. (Joe Robbins/Sportswire Icon via Getty Images)
Chris Goodlett of the Kentucky Derby Museum said, “The name Diane Crump is synonymous with courage, courage and progress. Her determination in the face of overwhelming odds opened doors for generations of female jockeys and inspired countless others far beyond racing.
After retiring from racing, Crump moved to Virginia and started a business helping people buy and sell horses.
She later took her therapy dogs, all dachshunds, to visit patients in hospitals and other medical clinics. She regularly visited some chronically ill people for years.
Payne said that when her mother entered an assisted living facility a month ago, she was already “near-famous” in the medical center because of the time she had spent there, and a “constant stream” of doctors and nurses came to see her. One of the last people to visit him was the man who had mowed his lawn.
His daughter said Crump would never take “no” for an answer, whether it was becoming a jockey or helping someone in need.
“I wouldn’t say she was competitive as much as she was stubborn,” Payne said. “If anyone counted on her, she could never disappoint anyone.”
Late in life, Crump had his favorite core characteristics tattooed on his forearms: “Kindness” on the left, “Compassion” on the right.
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Diane Crump follows Mike Sorentino on Born In A Trunk, and Craig Perret on Shir-Tee, in the seventh race at Hialeah. Diane, 20, became the first woman to compete in a regular event in the history of thoroughbred racing in the United States. She finished tenth out of twelve. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
Crump will be cremated and her ashes interred between her parents at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Front Royal, Virginia.
