Purcell Doesn’t Spend Much Time at Track, but She Makes the Most of It

Tami Purcell doesn’t see Los Alamitos Race Course much, but she usually makes the best of her visits.

That was the case again Saturday. Purcell, 36, one of the hottest jockeys in the nation, rode Dashing Folly to victory in the Grade 3, $20,000 Vandy’s Flash Handicap for 3-year-olds. It was the fourth victory in a stakes race in less than two months and the sixth in a row for the filly.

Trained by Texas-based Donna McArthur, Dashing Folly, with Purcell aboard, also took first at the $96,035 Maiden Derby at Manor Downs in Texas earlier this year. The horse is being prepared for the Nov. 15 Grade 1 Los Alamitos Derby.

No one can remember the last time a horse has won four consecutive stakes races, track spokesman John Petti said. The victories make Dashing Folly a serious challenger for horse of the year, which could be decided at the Los Alamitos Derby. Horse of the year in 1995 Winalota Cash, also a 3-year-old, is having a fine season as well.

Purcell gets a lot of credit for the way Dashing Folly has been performing.

“She is a class act off and on the track,” jockey Roman Figueroa said. “On the track her horses are always in control and she can really handle a horse as good as anyone.”

A native of Austin, Tex., Purcell doesn’t make excuses about the way she approaches her profession. First, she said, her riding skills go to the highest bidder. She services several accounts nationwide, taking a fee, expenses and, most times, at least 10% of each purse.

She rides a lot of thoroughbreds in Texas and Oklahoma, but she’s equally successful aboard quarter horses. Purcell had 636 starts in 1995 and won 111. She finished in the money 42% of the time and had earnings of nearly $1 million.

She picks her rides carefully too. It’s not uncommon for Purcell to take a mount at Los Alamitos, fly into town about an hour before the race, then head out the back door immediately after the race to catch a plane in time to ride another horse at, say, Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico or back at Manor Downs.

Second, she said, she works hard in a male-dominated profession. Image is important to Purcell, who grew up riding rodeo. When she was 18, in 1981, she rode in her first competitive race. It wasn’t easy being one of the few women jockeys around in those days, she says.

“I’ve been really fortunate in my career, but I want to let it be known that you can be a lady in this business and still be successful,” she said.

She apparently has earned the respect she has sought.

“Tami is someone that I look up to. I would even consider her a hero for women riders,” said jockey Daron Long, one of several female riders at Los Alamitos. “She’s all class. I’ve never heard anyone say a bad thing about her and in this competitive profession, that can be a tough find.”

Purcell said she doesn’t look at her accomplishment as statements for women’s rights or a woman’s place in the industry. But she doesn’t blush, either, when discussing the doors her success has helped to open for herself and other female jockeys.

“I don’t think you’ll hear anyone refer to her as a ‘girl’ jockey,” veteran jockey Jerry Yokum said. “She is just a great rider, a tough competitor and a great representative for horse racing.”

Traveling has taken a toll, Purcell said, and she’s not sure how much longer she’ll continue her jet-setting pace. She was married two years ago.

“It’s tough, all this traveling,” she said. “We’re considering a family. It’s something in the future.”

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Los Alamitos has been granted three racing dates on Monday afternoons in September by the California Racing Board. In exchange, the track will go dark on Thursdays that month.

The dates for Monday racing are Sept. 16, 23 and 30. Post time will be 1 p.m. A late afternoon race card is also planned for Labor Day, Sept. 2. There will be no racing Sept. 5, 12, 19 and 26.

Total handle for the Monday, July 1 race card was up about 20% from average Thursday handles.

If September Mondays prove successful, there’s a possibility the track will apply for more Monday race days.