First female Kentucky Derby jockey Diane Crump dies at 77
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Diane Crump, the first woman to compete as a jockey in the Kentucky Derby, died this week at the age of 77.
Crump was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in October and died Thursday night at a hospice facility in Winchester, Virginia, his 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 to compete in the Kentucky Derby. It would be another 14 years before another woman participated in the event.
Only four others have competed since then.
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Crump won 228 races before his last race in 1998; This was one month shy of his 50th birthday and nearly 30 years after his groundbreaking ride at Florida’s Hialeah Park on February 7, 1969.
Crump was among the few women successfully fighting to get a jockey’s license at the time, but they still needed a willing trainer to get them into the race and get the race started. Others were thwarted by male jockeys boycotting or threatening 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 lore.”
He noted that Crump, who had been riding horses since the age of 5 and galloped young thoroughbreds since he was a teenager, “was an iconic pioneer who admirably realized his childhood dreams.”
FAMOUS HORSE RACING JOCKEY, WHO BROUGHT THE LEGENDARY SECRETARIAT TO THE TRIPLE CROWN, DIES AT THE AGE OF 84
The 149th running of the Kentucky Derby took place on May 6, 2023, at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. (Icon Sportswire via Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
Chris Goodlett of the Kentucky Derby Museum said: “Diane Crump’s name means bravery, 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 settled in Virginia and started a business helping people buy and sell horses.
In later years, she took her therapy dogs, all dachshunds, to visit patients in hospitals and other medical clinics. For years he regularly visited some of them with chronic illnesses.
When her mother entered assisted living a month ago, Payne said, she was already a “semi-celebrity” at the medical center due to spending so much time there that a “steady stream of doctors and nurses” came to see her. One of the last people to visit him was the man who mowed his lawn.
Whether it was becoming a jockey or helping someone in need, Crump would never take “no” for an answer, his daughter said.
“I wouldn’t say he’s as competitive as he is stubborn,” Payne said. “If someone trusts him, he can never let anyone down.”
Later in life, Crump had his favorite key characteristics tattooed on his forearm: “Kindness” on the left, “Compassion” on the right.
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Diane Crump keeps pace with Mike Sorentino on Born In A Trunk and Craig Perret on Shir-Tee during race seven at Hialeah. Diane, 20, became the first woman in U.S. thoroughbred racing history to compete in a regular event. He finished tenth in a field of twelve. (Bettmann/Getty Images)
Crump will be cremated and his ashes will be interred among his parents at Prospect Hill Cemetery in Front Royal, Virginia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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