Plucky Mrs. Bagwill
In advance of a possible piece on the Lady Legends race, in which eight retired female jockeys will ride in the fourth race at Pimlico on Friday to benefit the Komen Foundation, I’ve been doing a bit of research on women jockeys in American racing. With the library packed up in preparation for a move, making it difficult to get to “The Lady Is a Jock” and other sources, I’m relying on what I can find through Google, the New York Times, and the DRF Archive at Keeneland, which yielded an interesting tidbit about an early “jockette.”
In January, I came across Miss Milfred, a young woman looking for work as a jockey in 1892 Chicago. Nothing more has turned up on Frances Milfred, but in 1898, there appears a Mrs. Bagwill. Notes the DRF of October 4:
Probably the only female jockey in the world is riding in running races on the Pacific Coast circuit. She is a Mrs. Bagwill, twenty-four years old, weight 101 pounds, and resides at Carson City, Nev. At the recent Nevada State Fair she won two of her five mounts. Mrs. Bagwill wears the regulation jockey costumes in races and rides astride.
The October 9, 1898 Kansas City Journal fills in a few more details, although, not her first name:
Six horses, straining every nerve and splendidly ridden by some of the best jockeys of this country, raced swiftly around the track at Reno, Nev., at the last meeting, and came down the stretch in magnificent style. Of the three horses first under the wire the last was ridden by a woman who, sitting astride, plied whip and spur in masterly style, and clearly outrode her competitors.
The woman was Mrs. Bagwill, a native of Nevada, who is probably the only female jockey in the world.
Her experience as a jockey has not been very extensive, but of the five races in which she has ridden twice has her horse come in a winner, and never has she ridden “outside” the money.
Mrs. Bagwill’s first attempt was at Carson City, when she rode third to Coates, sometimes known as “Pizen,” and Feathergill.
Mrs. Bagwill is 24 years of age and has been married for five years. She is of medium stature, petite in figure, but well proportioned and weighs 101 pounds. She is very modest and unassuming. When on the street, she dresses in plain black and from her appearance none would imagine that she ever assumed the part of a jockey.
She had an ambition to assist her husband, and being a good rider, decided that she could be more successful as a jockey than at anything else. In the saddle when ready for a race she wears bifurcated skirts, but fitting neatly.
And with that, Mrs. Bagwill, like Miss Milfred, recedes from history.
Links for 2010-05-11
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"Twenty minutes later, the serious handicapping began, but distractions arose: A rescue mission developed when track announcer Dave Rodman called, trapped inside the balky Pimlico elevator. Then, J.R. and Brandon briefly adjourned to satisfy their interest in the first race at Mountaineer Park." John Scheinman on oddsmaker Frank Carulli.
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Bill Finley has the stats: On the rail, on the turf, away from Churchill, at Churchill. "When it comes to winning percentage, Borel is no better at Churchill than he is overall. Throughout his career, he has more than 4,700 victories and his winning rate is 15 percent. At Churchill, through May 8, he has won 986 races for an identical winning percentage of 15 percent."
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4+ for Super Saver, Make Music For Me.
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"Recently, though, we’ve noticed that the symptoms of this revolution have changed. The blog as a form has begun to be overtaken by social media like Twitter and Facebook. News of the poetry world now travels fastest and furthest through Twitter … with the information often picked up from news aggregator sites rather than discursive blogs." There’s a similar trend in the racing news stream; time to change a few things?
Links for 2010-05-03
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Nice! "NBC Sports’ coverage of the Derby, won by Super Saver, earned the highest overnight rating for the race in 18 years, according to data from the Nielsen Company. The 10.3 overnight rating and 23 share for the race showed a gain of 1 percent over last year’s (10.2/22) and was up 7 percent from the 9.5/21 rating in 2008, when Big Brown cruised to victory. ABC earned a 10.9/23 rating when Lil E Tee won in 1992."
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More good news, despite problems: "Churchill reported a 7.8% increase in all-sources wagering handle on the Derby race itself to $112.7-million and a 4.3% wagering increase on the 13-race Derby card to $162.7-million."
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"The Louisiana-raised, late-blooming Mr. Borel is a charming quote dispenser, and last year he found himself celebrated, sometimes a bit patronizingly, as a supernatural horse whisperer. But he's not a shaman any more than Peyton Manning is. He's a champion and a pop star in a desperate but irresistible sport that most of us can't be bothered to watch for more five or six minutes a year."
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Tim Layden, gloomy. Too much rain? "That brief cycle begins anew on Saturday. The Derby will be grand and spectacular and compelling and there will be a great temptation to paint the scene as a celebratory renewal for racing, like it's been dunked in cleansing waters. Yet the reality feels somehow harsher this time, like a few days of greatness — whether in the present or culled from the past — can't keep saving racing. Like Churchill Downs is less a cathedral and more a museum."
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PA board members discuss the iPad and how they're using it for racing. Related: iPad sells at twice the rate of iPhone. “Nearly one out of every 300 Americans already owns one of these devices.”
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"Never before have more critics written more or better words for more readers about more films. But already you are ahead of me, and know this is because of the internet…. Film criticism is still a profession, but it’s no longer an occupation. You can’t make any money at it." A Roger Ebert essay as relevant to modern turf writing as to film criticism.
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