For former jockey P.J. Cooksey, a career in horse racing spanning three decades was jumpstarted with one exciting victory. "It was me and Pat Day all the way down the lane at Keeneland, and I beat him by a nose!" she said. Cooksey laughs when she notes that beating Pat Day kickstarted her career and was one of the greatest thrills of her life. But then, there have been many more since then. Cooksey has 2,136 career victories, second only to Julie Krone's 3,595 among female jockeys.
She started in the horse business late, at 22, by walking hots at West Virginia's Waterford Park. "I had gone to college at the University of Akron, hoping to become a mounted police officer. After two years, they told me I was too short, so I quit and worked in my mother's restaurant in Akron. A customer had a son who was a jockey, so he gave me his phone number, and I packed my car, my bags and my dog and took off for West Virginia. I made $75 a week, walking hots, grooming horses, cleaning stalls, working my way up."
Cooksey wasn't the first female jockey in the business. Barbara Jo Ruben, Diane Crump, Patty Barton were the real pioneers, Cooksey said. "I just made the trails a lot smoother for the women behind me. Of course, nobody thought a girl could ride because we weren't considered strong enough. The male jockeys didn't want me out there. It hurt their ego being out-ridden or beaten by a woman on the wire."
In August 1979, she was given her first horse to ride. "I can remember it like it was yesterday," Cooksey said. "I was sitting in the starting gate, and it was 7 furloughs on the turf. I've got this cage in front of me, and I'm sitting on this horse, and I could feel his heart pounding underneath me. The next thing I knew, the gate started ... rattling and everybody starts screaming and yelling, and the horse right next to me in the next stall rears and throws the jockey out the back and just kind of flips over backwards in the gate. All I see are these hooves flying around me, and I remember thinking, 'What am I doing here?'"
Even though she's suffered seven concussions, fractured ankles, and broken both legs, Cooksey describes her racing injuries as minimal. "Usually I'd land on my head andÖthat's what saved me." She returned to racing after each injury. Her bout with breast cancer, however, was tougher than "riding against the boys," as she says. She's now an eight-year survivor and credits a sisterhood of survivors with helping her through the mastectomy and chemotherapy.
After an accident at Keeneland in 2003, Cooksey was off the track for 14 months. "I vowed to return to racing because I was not going to finish my last race lying on the ground." She returned and rode for about two months, but the pain from the rod in her leg was too much. She retired from racing in 2004.
Today, she is director of public relations with the Kentucky Horse Racing Authority(KHRA), the regulatory agency for all Thoroughbred, standard bred and quarter horse racing in Kentucky. Her job makes her a liaison between the industry and the people on the backside - the owners, trainers, jockeys and horsemen - as well as a representative of the sport.
Asked about some of the issues facing the industry, Cooksey shared her own insight:
Steroids
"The steroid issue didn't just come up because of Eight Belles or Big Brown. It's been on the table for years. Some steroids are actually good for horses because, when they are not in competition, it helps their appetite, and there are some therapeutic benefits that are good with certain steroids.
"But we do need more research. If Kentucky's going to be on the forefront, being the horse capital of the world, then we need someone who knows all the medications, the withdrawal times, and who can do all the research needed. Bringing Dr. Mary Scollay (appointed by the KHRA in May as Kentucky's first equine medical director) to Kentucky is a big step for the industry. We need to have somebody with her qualifications to move us through the issues in the proper way that's fair for everybody."
Track surfaces
"I think the jury's still out on synthetic surfaces, but I do know we've had fewer casualties. I had the opportunity to be the very first person to step foot on the new training track at Keeneland with a filly. I was exercising horses for John Ward, and this filly was kind of cranky. She would always go sideways and cock her head, and she was very difficult to exercise. I got her on that poly track and she loved it. It was like jumping on marshmallows."
Big Brown at Belmont
"Personally, I don't think [steroids] was the issue. I think his foot was a bigger issue. And horses have good days and bad days. I've been on many a horse that I thought I was going to just gallop around there and win, and they leave the gate and there's nothing underneath you. It's just like they just don't feel like running that day, and no matter what you do you just can't get them to run. That being said, Big Brown might have just had a bad day."
Eight Belles at Churchill Downs
"I was actually right on the track when she galloped passed me, finishing second. This is a filly that was as happy as can be. She's hearing the crowd, she has her ears pricked, and she's paying attention to what's going on around her. The jockey's doing everything right. He's got her head picked up, he's standing up, letting her gallop casually after a race. The next thing you know, the jockey is catapulting through the air and the horse is down. It was just a tragic event, and there's no explanation for it. It being the Derby put us in the national spotlight, so, it's brought a real pall over the industry."
Jockey weight
"Jockeys can't play football, and football players can't be jockeys. If you raise the weights for the jockeys, what you're going to get is bigger boys trying to reduce down to that weight. We need to educate riders and jockeys into proper nutrition, proper diet, how to take care of your body. But it's an individual thing for each rider. Some of them just don't care. They'd just as soon sit at the lunch bar, wolf down two cheeseburgers, drink a diet Coke, and go back to the toilet and up it."
Cooksey has received numerous awards in her career. She was presented with the Vince Lombardi Award for an athlete who has survived cancer and gone on with their athletic competitions; she's been inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame, and, most recently, she was a nominee for the 2008 National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame.
"Just to be mentioned in the same category as the world's best jockeys is a great honor," Cooksey said. "But the special moments have come whenever I wasn't necessarily on the best horse, but everything I did in that race with that horse - putting him in the right spot, asking him at the right time, making the right moves and then crossing the line first - those are the special moments. When you know you and your horse work together as one for that ultimate goal of crossing the wire first, that's awesome. That's the thrill of a lifetime."
Janet Holloway is president of J. Holloway & Associates and co-founder of Women Leading Kentucky. A national columnist for www.womenentrepreneur.com, she can be reached at jhollow@womenleadingky.com.