It’s hard to believe it was 10 years ago. So much has happened in the real world since American Pharoah swept the 2015 Triple Crown and capped his 3-year-old season with a historic “Grand Slam” win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland.
There are a few female jockeys who will always be associated with their historic “firsts.” Diane Crump was the first female jockey to ride in a sanctioned race and the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby. Julie Krone became the first female rider to win a Triple Crown race when she guided Colonial Affair to victory in the 1993 Belmont Stakes. Jockey
If you’re new to horse racing, you’ll notice very soon that horses will be assigned different jockeys to ride them often during their careers on the track. Rarely will a horse have the same jockey in the saddle from their first start through their last. There are countless reasons for this, but the core principle is simple: horse owners are small businesspeople, most of them with a chief executive mindset, and jockeys in North America are independent contractors in charge of making their own employment decisions.
Hall of Fame jockey Calvin Borel has engineered his share of upsets on the big stage, perhaps most famously guiding Mine That Bird to a stunning, rail-skimming 50.60-1 score in the slop in the 2009 Kentucky Derby.
Borel’s win aboard Rockamundo in the 1993 Arkansas Derby must rank right up there with the biggest shockers ever on the Kentucky Derby trail.
“We understand that anyone that reads the [Daily Racing Form] would’ve thought we were crazy to run this horse,” owner Gary West on Rockamundo’s participation in the 1993 Arkansas Derby.
Following an emphatic win in the Fasig-Tipton Fair Grounds Oaks last Saturday, Good Cheer rocketed into the top 10 in the Equibase earnings standings for racehorses based in North America to eighth, and up to fifth in the 3-year-old division with $420,000 in 2025 earnings.
