The letters meant so much to Penny Chenery, breeder and owner of 1973 Triple Crown champion Secretariat. They were written by ambitious girls from coast to coast, telling her she served as a role model for them.
Charlsie Cantey never sought to break ground as the first female racing broadcaster. She never fancied herself as the pioneering type. It just sort of happened.
Cantey was among a handful of women exercising horses in 1975 when Frank Tours, then with the New York Racing Association, asked if she might be interested in appearing regularly on a television show that featured local racing on WOR. The more he asked, the more vehemently she rejected the notion.
The Road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve heads south this Saturday to Tampa Bay Downs, which hosts the $400,000, Grade 3 ESMARK Tampa Bay Derby.
Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop did not set out to become the first Black woman licensed to train racehorses in the United States. Horses were a part of her, and she wanted to make her living training them. Her perseverance not only made her a pioneer, but it also sparked a legacy that influenced generations of people who followed her into the game, ensuring that her name would live on long beyond her days on the racetrack.
