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Diane Crump, first woman to compete Kentucky Derby jockey, died this week aged 77.
Crump was diagnosed with the aggressive form in October. brain cancer and died Thursday evening at a hospice in Winchester, Virginia, her daughter Della Payne told The Associated Press.
In 1969, she became the first woman to race professionally and a year later became the first female jockey in the Kentucky Derby. It would be another 14 years before another woman would compete in the competition.
Since then, only four have participated.
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Crump won 228 races before her last race in 1998, a month before her 50th birthday and nearly 30 years after her groundbreaking ride at Hialeah Park in Florida on February 7, 1969.
Crump was among several women who successfully competed for a jockey's license at the time, but they still needed a trainer willing to send them to the race and then run the race. Others were thwarted when male jockeys boycotted or threatened to boycott if a woman was ridden in an event.
Churchill Downs Racetrack President Mike Anderson said in a statement Friday that Crump “will be forever respected and fondly remembered in horse racing history.”
He noted that Crump, who had been riding since she was five and galloping young Thoroughbreds since her teens, “was an iconic trailblazer who excelled in realizing her childhood dreams.”
FAMOUS RACING JOCKEY WHO RID THE LEGENDARY SECRETARIAT TO WISH THE TRIPLE CROWN DIED AT 84
The 149th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 6, 2023 in Louisville, Kentucky. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Chris Goodlett of the Kentucky Derby Museum said, “The name Diana Crump symbolizes courage, resilience and progress. “Her determination in the face of insurmountable odds opened doors for generations of female jockeys and inspired countless others far beyond racing.”
After retiring from racing, Crump settled in Virginia and started a business helping people buy and sell horses.
In subsequent years, she took her therapy dogs, all dachshunds, to visit patients in hospitals and other medical clinics. For years, she regularly visited some people with chronic illnesses.
Payne said that when her mother moved into the nursing home a month ago, she was already “quasi-famous” at the medical center because of how much time she spent there and had a “steady stream” of doctors and nurses coming to see her. One of the last people to visit her was the man who was mowing her lawn.
Her daughter said Crump would never take no for an answer, whether it was working as a jockey or helping someone in need.
“I wouldn't say she was so competitive as she was stubborn,” Payne said. “If anyone counted on her, she would never let anyone down.”
At the end of her life, Crump tattooed her favorite fundamental characteristics on her forearms – “Kindness” on the left, “Compassion” on the right.
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Diane Crump keeps pace with Born in a Trunk's Mike Sorentino and Shire-T's Craig Perret during the seventh race at Hialeah. Diane, 20, became the first woman to compete regularly in the history of US thoroughbred racing. 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.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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