Today In Sports History (January 28, 1969)

On this day in 1969, Barbara Jo Rubin became the first female jockey to win a race in North America. It was the Hobby Horse Hall in Nassau, Bahamas. Rubin was the first female in history to be granted an American jockey license. It was from West Virginia. A few weeks after Rubin’s first win on North American soil, she followed it up by being the first women jockey to ever win a US horse race. Rubin set a plethora of firsts in the world of horse racing becoming the first woman to obtain a jockey license, being the first woman named to ride in the Kentucky Derby, all the way to being the first woman to ever retire from professional racing. Throughout her career, Rubin faced heavy scrutiny, and was scoffed at for trying to enter a sport that was historically called the “sport of kings.” Protests occurred and some claimed to boycott the horse track should Rubin be allowed to compete. And compete she did.