Krone Caps Her Career

A tearful Julie Krone, who’ll be the first woman to be enshrined, and a humbled Neil Drysdale were elected to the Racing Hall of Fame on Tuesday. A.P. Indy, a champion colt Drysdale trained, was also elected, along with Winning Colors, the third and most recent filly to win the Kentucky Derby, and Needles, the Derby winner in 1956.

The English-born Drysdale, 52, didn’t get the chance to run A.P. Indy in the Derby because of a foot injury the day of the race, but he’ll get another opportunity Saturday when he saddles Fusaichi Pegasus, the favorite, and War Chant, another top contender, in the 126th running.

“I hope history repeats itself,” Drysdale said at the Hall of Fame announcement in the press box at Churchill Downs. “Mr. Lukas won the Derby after [standing] at this same podium a year ago.”

Elected to the Hall of Fame four days before last year’s Derby, Wayne Lukas then saddled the winner, Charismatic.

Recalling her mother, who suffered from cancer and died in December, Krone, 37, got misty-eyed. She recalled how her mother, Judi Krone, had encouraged her to become a jockey. They traveled together from Michigan to Churchill Downs when Julie Krone was 15, her mother forging her daughter’s birth certificate so she could get a backstretch job a year before she was of legal age.

“I’m not much of a crier, but I cried on the plane coming here,” Krone said. “My mother gave me a relentlessness that helped my career. I wish she was here now. I almost dialed her number three times when I found out. But I know she’s watching from heaven.”

The 4-foot-10 1/2 Krone, who rode at 100 pounds, retired in April 1999, winning three races at Lone Star Park the last day she rode.

“My mother was there,” Krone said. “That was one of the last days that she was able to walk.”

Krone rode 3,545 winners, a record for a woman, and her horses earned $81 million in purses. The winner of 119 graded stakes, she is the only woman to ride the winner of a Triple Crown race, her Belmont Stakes win coming with Colonial Affair in 1993. Her career was occasionally interrupted by injuries, the most serious in August 1993 at Saratoga, where she was trampled by a horse and needed two plates and 14 screws to rebuild a shattered right ankle.

After a divorce, the New Jersey-based Krone has moved to California, where she’s working as a weekend analyst for Hollywood Park’s in-house racing telecasts. She also works as a studio host for the Television Games Network, a fledgling all-racing channel.

Drysdale, based at Hollywood Park, had won 919 races going into this year, his horses earning $50 million. Besides A.P. Indy, who was horse of the year in 1992, he has trained champions Princess Rooney, Tasso, Hollywood Wildcat and Fiji. Another Drysdale horse, Bold ‘N Determined, was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1997.

“I’m honored and humbled,” Drysdale said. . “When you’re starting out, this isn’t something you think about or aspire to. I feel like I’ve just won a race by a nose.”

He was referring to the quality of the ballot, which included Richard Mandella and Willard Proctor. On the jockey side, Jack Westrope and Earlie Fires finished behind Krone. About 140 turf writers and racing authorities voted.

A.P. Indy was the top vote-getter in the male-horse category, which included Precisionist and Unbridled. Winning Colors finished ahead of Flawlessly and Mom’s Command in the female-horse category, and Needles, on the ballot with Cougar II and Bowl Of Flowers, was winning horse of yesteryear.

Unable to run in the Derby, A.P. Indy won the Belmont Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He finished first in eight of his 11 races, earning $2.9 million in purses. In 1988, Winning Colors won the Kentucky and Santa Anita Derbies. Needles won the 1956 Derby, was second to Fabius in the Preakness and then won the Belmont..

Krone, Drysdale and the three horses will be enshrined Aug. 7 at the Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.