When Arcangelo sailed across the finish line in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets on June 10, 2023, he gave Jena Antonucci a historic victory as the first woman to train the winner of a U.S. Triple Crown race. The win seemed only fitting as the sport celebrated the 50^th anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown for owner Penny Chenery, a pioneer in her own right.

Arcangelo’s win also harkened back to another milestone in the same race on the same track 30 years earlier, as Julie Krone guided Colonial Affair to a 2¼-length victory.

Ten years after her Belmont Stakes win, Krone returned for one last year in the saddle in 2003, months where this jockey capitalized on her lifetime of experience to craft a wondrous finale to her Hall of Fame career.

Coming Back to Form

Racing is a sport of highs and lows as those who devote their lives to it are intimately aware. For Krone, 1993 was a year replete with achievements, including that classic win on Colonial Affair, but also setbacks as a spill at Saratoga later that summer left her with multiple injuries, including a bruised heart, a shattered ankle, and a punctured elbow. Another spill within two weeks of her return in 1995 left her reeling and tentative. By the time she retired in 1999, she had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) and found herself ready to look to what was next.

Krone at Del Mar in 2003 (BENOIT photo)

“You cannot talk somebody into doing something that is dangerous, and you cannot talk them out of it either. It’s literally a switch. It just clicks off or on,” the Hall of Famer reflected on that moment in her career. “I just really didn’t want to ride anymore,”

Retirement led her to broadcasting for TVG and Hollywood Park as well as marriage to longtime turf writer and author Jay Hovdey. Her time on air observing and commenting on the California racing scene, especially the state’s deep jockey colony, led the Hall of Famer to a realization.

 “I was talking about these jockeys and watching these races, paying attention to what was going on, and then I realized I could beat these guys,” Krone said.

“I was watching the races every day and I just became competitive again. It just kind of happened. I didn’t really even think about it.”

And with that, a comeback was born.

Getting Back to Riding

Krone took her time getting back into the swing of things. In her mid-30s, the Hall of Famer was purposeful and measured in her return. She galloped horses in the mornings for a year to make sure she was ready, both mentally and physically, for riding competitively in the afternoons. In November 2002, she came out of retirement at Santa Anita Park, finishing fourth on Justly Royal in her first race back, and then got her first win of this next phase of her career six days later. Julie Krone was back.

Winning the 2003 Citation Handicap on Redattore. (BENOIT photo)

The new year brought Krone opportunities reminiscent of her earlier years on the East Coast. She felt more confident in her skills as the time off had given her a chance to work on the natural horsemanship she had developed since her earliest years.

“I rounded them out a bit more and actually became a better horseman,” she said. “I think that contributed to my success that year.”

She picked up mounts from trainers like Ron McAnally and Richard Mandella on horses like Sweet Return, winner of the 2003 Grade 1 Hollywood Derby; Siphonizer, who took the Grade 2 Del Mar Futurity; and Halfbridled, a daughter of 1990 Kentucky Derby winner Unbridled. With that filly, Krone realized another milestone.

Krone picked up the opportunity to work with Halfbridled thanks to Mandella’s assistant trainer Becky Witzman, who put the Hall of Famer on the sensitive young filly. She worked with Halfbridled in the mornings, learning her quirks as Mandella prepared the future champion for her first start. That earned Krone the chance to ride Halfbridled in her 2-year-old season, guiding her through wins in her debut, the Del Mar Debutante, and the Oak Leaf Stakes.

“She had huge, gigantic strides and tactical gears like I could do anything I wanted with her,” she remembered. “I got to ride her almost like an older horse. We could do anything we wanted with her.”

Those three wins earned Halfbridled a spot in the starting gate for the 2003 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies at Santa Anita Park, familiar racetrack for the talented filly. She faced a full field of 14 in that race, drawing the outermost post. Krone knew they were in for a challenge as Halfbridled preferred to run just off the lead but would have to hustle from the starting gate to gain position early.

“At the half-mile pole, I heard a couple of jockeys start to chirp already, but she just started to relax like, ‘Let me know when you need me,’ ” Krone recalled. “She’s throwing her ears back and up in the middle of the race and heard more jockeys chirp and I had to start going, ‘Oh, easy’ like I did in the mornings, telling her it wasn’t time yet.

“Once she relaxed like that, it wasn’t like she needed encouragement to get going.”

Halfbridled would take over the lead in the stretch and pull away to a 2 ½-length victory, giving Krone her first Breeders’ Cup winner 15 years after becoming the first woman to ride in the year-end championship event.

Like Penny Chenery before her and Jena Antonucci after her, each of Krone’s milestones came from the hard work she put in and the faith she had in her skills. It was that perseverance and tenacity that put her in the right place at the right time for another milestone.

Remembering a Storybook Season

That 2003 season not only gave Krone the chance to ride Halfbridled, who would win champion 2-year-old filly on the strength of her undefeated record, but also to ride Candy Ride in the final race of his career, the Grade 1 Pacific Classic Stakes at Del Mar, which he won by 3 ¼ lengths in a track-record time of 1:59.11 for 1 ¼ miles.. “He was like a ‘My Little Pony,’ ” she recalled of the Argentine import and sire of champions Gun Runner and Game Winner. “Every hair was in place. He was perfect. It was just such a wonderful win and on such an iconic horse.”

Krone winning 2003 Citation on Redattore. (BENOIT photo)

The highs of 2003, though, came with one low that left Krone ready to exit the saddle once again. A spill in December, just weeks after her historic win on Halfbridled, left the Hall of Famer with broken ribs and muscle tears. She returned after nearly eight weeks of recuperation but decided that one last comeback was not in the cards. Though she never officially retired, Krone has pursued motivational speaking and natural horsemanship instruction since those final rides at Santa Anita Park as well as raising her daughter, Lorelei, with Hovdey.

Looking back on that halcyon season, with Halfbridled and that Breeders’ Cup win, Candy Ride and his Pacific Classic, and more, it is tough for Krone to pick one highlight. Instead, she reflected on the whole experience, the finale for a Hall of Fame career.

“One single thing would not make the whole thing, but collectively, that’s the story. It’s not one race, but doing it every day,” Krone reflected.

“But in my whole career, in my whole life, to do it the best that I’ve ever done it on some of the best horses I’ve ever done it on, and to compete against some of the best jockeys, that’s the story for me.”