Effervescent Krone Is the Ultimate Warrior

I’ve always found it difficult talking to jockey Julie Krone. She’s so bubbly, so perky, so cheery. Nothing like the wife.

I’ve been married for 31 years, so there are times when you have to talk, I guess, or at the very least, be told what to do. But I’ve just gotten into the habit of always saying, “Yes, sir,” to make her happy.

Krone, however, arrives to work on top of the world -- Wednesday returning all giddy to Santa Anita two months after falling off a horse, breaking ribs, injuring her neck and making an overall mess of her body. I suppose if the wife rolled off the couch she’d get right back on it too, but I can just imagine the bellyaching.

Krone, already in the Hall of Fame, finished last in her first race back on the track, the winner, of course, a horse named All The Boys, which I was more than happy to point out. And although she took a swig of water and acted as if she were going to spit it at me, she was only goofing. Like I said -- nothing like the wife.

“What a great day,” Krone chirped, and that was after I had approached her.

We’re talking big-time athlete here, and she’s just a shrimp. She’s had more broken bones than room allows to detail, has retired and then returned to dominate the Southern California circuit before getting injured again.

USA Today recently named her one of the top 10 toughest athletes in sports, and the day-to-day dying sport of horse racing -- which has lost such key figures as Laffit Pincay, Chris McCarron, Eddie Delahoussaye and Patrick Valenzuela locally -- desperately needs her boundless energy back on the track.

“Just got to get a win now,” she continued, while the crowd around the Santa Anita paddock chanted, “Welcome back, Julie.”

“One guy yelled to me, ‘The ultimate warrior,’ ” she said with a grin. “And I said, ‘Thank you very much.’ I like that, the ultimate warrior.”

She continued to chirp, of course, which is very annoying, allowing almost no time to work in a few smart-aleck remarks.

Krone says she’s 100% healthy for her return because they don’t slow down the horses so you can take your time coming back, and then she ducked around the corner to yell at jockey Victor Espinoza, “Stay out of my way.” For a moment there, I could hear the wife.

It’s hard to walk by Krone without saying something to her, because she’s so darn friendly, which is also very annoying. None of her horses finished in the money Wednesday, so the last thing I want to see is a smiling jockey who acts as if she couldn’t care less what’s happened to my money. I can go home and get that.

“I’m so thrilled to be back,” she said, while admitting she was fighting off the butterflies on the drive to the track for her latest comeback. It doesn’t help when you pick up the morning newspaper and there’s a story about jockey Mike Rowland, who died after a fall at Turfway Park.

“I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t say that made me think, but then you get that feeling where you’d be almost willing to trade anything to win a race, and that wins out,” she said. “I probably replayed the video of my fall 40 times, but I also probably watched my win on Halfbridled in the Breeders’ Cup 50 times. So I’m 10 up on the spill. That’s what I do, I just focus on the positive.”

Like I said, they’ve got nothing in common.

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THE DODGERS confirmed this stat: Under the ownership of the O’Malleys, the Dodgers compiled a .550 winning percentage. Peter O’Malley guided the Dodgers to a .521 winning percentage from 1979 through 1997. Under the ownership of Fox, the Dodgers posted a .568 winning percentage.

Who knew Kevin Malone and Dan Evans were so good?

A comparison of winning percentages from postseason play, of course, would not be fair -- because Fox never participated.

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SCOTT KAPLAN and Billy Ray Smith, who deliver the best sports talk radio in the mornings in Los Angeles -- although based in San Diego -- have a regular contributor in the Lakers’ Kurt Rambis. Kaplan asked Rambis on Wednesday morning whether he believed Shaquille O’Neal would get up at the prospect of playing Yao Ming on Wednesday night, and Rambis immediately replied, “No.”

OK, Kaplan continued, but any chance O’Neal might get up in this particular case because the All-Star game is in Staples this weekend, Yao took O’Neal’s starting place in the game and this was his chance for a payback?

“Go ahead and think that if you like,” Rambis said.

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THE PRESS release said celebrities would converge on the Beverly Hills Hotel on Friday for “Behind the Bench,” the NBA Wives’ Assn. gala. At the gala, Janet Jackson will be given the 2004 Touching a Life Award. You know what Justin Timberlake says, if you can touch just one ... well, it’s all worth it.

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USA TODAY reported that Max Kellerman, the host of “Around the Screaming Horn,” had parted ways with ESPN. Kellerman, who reportedly sought an increase to about $850,000 annually to embarrass himself five times a week, might now wind up at Fox Sports Net. I presume parking cars.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from James Jenkens:

“Do you realize there was a pretty serious column about hockey and coaches on the second page of sports, and some of it made sense. I wish the newspaper would make it clearer when someone else is writing in your spot.”

A lot of people would like the paper to make it clearer that someone else is going to be writing in my spot.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.