There are a few female jockeys who are always associated with their historical “first”. Diane Crump was the first female jockey that drove in a sanctioned breed, and the first woman who drove in the Kentucky Derby. Julie Krone was the first female driver to win a triple crown race when she led the colonial affair to victory in the Belmont Stakes in 1993. Jockey Rosie Napravnik was the first woman to win the Kentucky Oaks and won the 2012 edition with Believe You Can.
But how about an Eclipse Award? Who was the first female driver to win an Eclipse Award?
The answer could be a stump, unless you regularly followed the Florida circuit. Then, by running with serenity on the race track every day, you could probably guess the answer.
It was in 1992 when Rosemary Homsister Jr. achieved a first for a female driver by winning the Eclipse Prize as an outstanding trainee.
This breakthrough Honor signaled the beginning of an extremely successful career as a riding career from 1992 to 2015, in which she won 2,784 races and after each of them blew a kiss on the television cameras of the track. In the meantime, she deserved respect as a jockey that had the right mix of skill, talent and determination to be a top driver on a best-known and competitive circuits in North America.
Homsister was born on July 5, 1972 in Hollywood, Florida, and was supposed to be a jockey. Her father, James Homeister, was a driver who collected more than 500 victories while her mother, Rosemary Homsire Sr., drove in 29 races from 1977 to 1981 and registered her first and only win against the winners of news on the calder racing line on January 7, 1978.
Inspired by her mother, homism began to train horses as a teenager and break horses.
In 1992 she started driving on the Calder Race Course as an apprentice and had great success. This year she won 172 races and made a profit of $ 1,769,063, while she won the riding title in the Tropical at Calder Meet, and achieved enough national attention to be chosen as the recipient of an ECLIPSE AWARD.
She spent her first summer as an apprentice in the Monmouth Park and was the best teacher driver on the Jersey Shore route in her first two years.
After her sensational debut in 1992, Homsister won 100 or more in 10 of the next 11 years. Apart from all these victories, she also won more than 100 missions in her career, 13 of them.
Among these black victories were in 2002 in Dassa Dale on board Ms. Brookski, class 2 La Prevoyante 2002, and class 2 William L. McKnight from 2002 on Gloomy's Knight.
She led all female jockeys in the victories in 2000-01 and was the only female jockey in 2001 to win the riding title in Hialeah Park.
Homsister reached the peak of sport in 2003 when she received the mountain on Supah Blitz in the Kentucky Derby. Although Supah Blitz took 13th place behind Entertaining Cide, homism was in the shimmer of becoming only the fifth woman who rode for the roses (Rosie Napravnik was the sixth in 2011).
In 2011 Homsister announced that she was pregnant and her daughter Victoria Rose gave birth to her career at the age of 39.
She returned in 2012 and had one of her best years and won 125 races with a profit of 3,280,647 US dollars.
Homsister slowed the pace in the next few years before retiring in 2015. But before the curtain followed, she achieved a last victory for the degree -Stakes and took the fantasy inserts of 3 class 3 in the Oaklawn Park, including Betty.
Her career ended on September 26, 2015 when she rode the Spark Kit for a second place in the eighth race in the Arlington Park, an ironic end of an excellent career for a woman who deserves to be reminded for a historical first.
Note: This story was originally published and updated in February 2018.
Entertaining facts about Rosemary Homesister Jr.
- She took the name of Rosemary Homesister Jr. to avoid that she was confused with her mother, who was also jockey and had the same first and second names.
- In 2001 she won the first woman to win the Clasico del Caribe.
- Under her other missions, Princess Rooney, the Calder Derby, my charm, the lawn of Kentucky Cup and Florida Oaks were.
- In 2003 she received the Babe Drikson Zaharias Award.
- In 2005, Emma-Jayne Wilson joined Homsistin as a second woman, who won the Eclipse Prize as a leading teacher driver.
