Occupation Jockey Career wins 2,700 (ongoing) | Name Rosemary Jr. Role Jockey | |
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Born July 5, 1972 (age 51)
Hollywood, Florida United States ( 1972-07-05 ) | ||
Rosemary Homeister Jr.
Rosemary Homeister, Jr. (born July 5, 1972, in Hollywood, Florida) is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing.
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Background
Both of Homeister's parents were jockeys, and as a result she grew up riding horses. Her mother is now a horse trainer at the Calder Race Course, where Rosemary won her first race as an apprentice jockey. In 1991, she briefly attended Broward Community College but left to develop a career in racing.
Homeister started her career working with horses as an exercise rider and breaking yearlings before beginning her riding apprenticeship in 1992. She met with great success that year, becoming the first woman to win the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in the United States. She was originally the runner-up, but winner Jesus Armando Bracho from Venezuela was suspended, then surrendered his award for falsifying his racing papers. Two years later, she went to the awards ceremony to accept the award. Since then, Homeister has won more than 2000 races at tracks in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and along the East Coast of the United States from Florida to New York. In 1995, she and her mother were profiled by CBS News Sunday Morning.
In 2000 and 2001, she was the United States leading female jockey in wins. In 2001, she was the first (and so far only) female jockey to win the Clasico del Caribe conducting the Panamanian filly Alexia. In 2003, she became only the fifth woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 13th aboard Supah Blitz in a race won by Funny Cide.
Homeister retired in November 2004 after thirteen years of competition, having won 1,726 races from 12,907 starts. However, she returned to racing in June 2006 and on September 3 of that year was inducted into the Calder Race Course Hall of Fame.
As of December 2006, she is divorced from jockey José Ferrer, according to an interview she gave TVG Network's Lady Luck.
At Tampa Bay Downs on December 18, 2008, Homeister won her 2000th race.
On February 11, 2011, she announced that she was pregnant and would not ride for an indefinite period, returned to race riding in 2012. She rode the filly Include Betty in the 2015 Kentucky Oaks.