Women jockeys shining at Emerald

AUBURN —

In the biggest horse races, owners and trainers want big-money riders.

And at Emerald Downs, that has increasingly meant women jockeys are riding many of the best horses on the grounds.

Bettors have made women riders favorites in five of the nine stakes races contested this season. (They have finished in the money in four of those races, winning one.)

“Women are more accepted now,” said veteran Northwest trainer Howard Belvoir.

Another longtime trainer, Sharon Ross, says she doesn’t have a problem letting a woman ride her best horses in stakes races.

“These days, it’s a lot easier to do the job that we are all doing here because of where we are in society,” said Ross. “I’d say back in the ’80s it was a little tougher, because it was a men’s game. I can remember my husband [trainer Larry Ross] telling me that female grooms weren’t allowed on the racetrack. It took awhile for women to get into this business.”

Based on last year’s spectacular season, four women jockeys at Emerald Downs have earned the right to sit atop some of the major players at the track.

The foursome — Debbie Hoonan-Trujillo, Jennifer Whitaker, Sandi Gann and Kate Repp — shattered the state record last year by combining to win 11 stakes. The total was the highest by the female jockey colony at one race meet since Washington legalized horse racing in 1933.

The previous record was seven, set by Vicky Aragon (now Vicky Baze) at Emerald Racing Association’s 1993 meet held at Yakima Meadows. The previous best at Emerald Downs had been five, in 1997.

It was the first time in the state that four women had won stakes races. The previous best was two. The four each won at least 20 races last year.

The local jockey colony is still predominantly male, but the women have gained respect from the men. The four stakes winners are acknowledged as talented riders, and they’re getting good horses, which is a good part of the battle.

“They don’t bother me at all as long as they keep them straight,” said two-time riding champion Kevin Radke. “The women we do have here, they do all right. Whitaker can ride, and you’ve got Debbie, who is in one of the liveliest barns on the backside. She usually has horse, same with Jennifer. Sandi’s a good rider, as well.

“I’ve been at other tracks where the girls were horrible because they were on bad horses. Bad horses are hard to ride no matter how good you are. But here, the girls have live barns behind them.”

Eight female riders have won stakes races since Emerald Downs opened in 1996, including Whitaker, who has won seven stakes.

“I didn’t think I’d ever be this good,” said Whitaker, whose 277 victories at Emerald are the most by a woman. “I’m my worst critic.”

All of Whitaker’s stakes wins have been aboard Belvoir-trained runners.

“It has been great riding for Howard; he’s a great trainer,” Whitaker said. “I also work for him in the mornings. We communicate a lot more than any jockey or trainer would.”

Hoonan-Trujillo, who has won at least one stakes race in each of her four years at the Auburn oval, has been the go-to rider for Sharon Ross.

Hoonan-Trujillo started her riding career at Longacres in 1988. She got a small taste of stakes competition, finishing second twice aboard longshot Rattlesnake Dancer.

When Longacres closed in 1992, Hoonan-Trujillo traveled to California to gallop horses. She worked for some of the biggest California trainers, including D. Wayne Lukas.

She didn’t ride professionally from 1993 to 2003, but returned to the Northwest to exercise and gallop horses in the mornings for Ross.

“Debbie started galloping for me about five years ago. She was kind of making her comeback and getting back on horses,” Ross said. “I really liked how she handled horses, and she was an ex-jockey at that point. It came in really helpful when we were ready to work horses.”

But riding in prime time and in front of a packed grandstand kept gnawing at Hoonan-Trujillo. “It was in my heart, I kept dreaming about it,” she said.

“Debbie sort of freaked me out when she said that she was going to go back and be a jockey,” Ross said of Hoonan-Trujillo’s return to the track in 2004 at Emerald Downs. “I thought, ‘Oh great, I’m going to lose my best exercise rider.’ “

Owner Rick Beal gave Hoonan-Trujillo plenty of horses to ride.

“The owners gave her a shot and she started doing really good,” said Ross, who claimed a stakes victory with Hoonan-Trujillo aboard Briartic Gold. “I told all the owners that Debbie knows all these horses really well, she’s very smart on the racetrack, I trust her, she rides as good as anyone else out there. It has been a very good relationship.”

Hoonan-Trujillo led all women jockeys with 52 victories her first year back, and has led the female colony each of the past three years.

“I saw this window of opportunity, and I jumped,” she said. “[The success] way exceeded my expectations.”

Sharon and Larry Ross rank second all-time at Emerald Downs with 33 stakes victories. Hoonan-Trujillo has been aboard the Ross’ past five stakes winners.

“Why should I look anywhere else?” Sharon Ross asked.

Hoonan-Trujillo said she enjoys riding at Emerald Downs, and gets along with the jockeys — female and male.

“It’s pretty cool riding here, we all compete against each other [but] if somebody gets hurt, we all jump in, we’re all right there to help each other out,” she said.

Whitaker said, “We’re all friends. At the end of the day, it’s a competition out there. Everybody here is pretty good to ride with.”

True, said Repp. Even the men.

“[The men] are good,” she said. “They yell at us a little, but they yell at everyone else, too.”

Women’s stakes wins
How female jockeys have fared at regional tracks:
Longacres (1933-1992)
Vicky Baze	18
Jane Driggers	1
Lisa Perrine	1
Sandi Gann	1
Emerald Racing at Yakima Meadows (1993-95)
Vicky Baze	10
Emerald Downs (1996-present)
Debbie Hoonan-Trujillo	8
Jennifer Whitaker	7
Vicky Baze	7
Sandi Gann	5
Chelsea Zupan	5
Kate Repp	1
Karen Knapp	1
Nicola Wright	1