(2 of 2)
Cotton in the Ears. Barbara Jo Rubin, 19, has already proved it. When she rode two winners on the same day at Waterford Park in Chester, W. Va., touts dismissed it as beginner's luck at a small-stakes track. Then she went to Aqueduct and, with pigtails flying, ran away from the field aboard an untried 13-1 shot named Bravy Galaxy. Quashing the cynics was gratifying, she says, but her biggest thrill was having the jockeys ambush her and douse her with a bucket of water, a traditional ceremony after an apprentice rider's first win at the Big A. "To me," said Barbara Jo, who during a jockey boycott at Tropical Park had her dressing-room window smashed by a rock, "that meant that I was finally accepted by the jockeys." It was about time. By last week she chalked up an astonishing eleven victories in 22 starts.
For Barbara Jo, success is like a rerun on the late, late show. At age eight, she explains, "I saw Liz Taylor in National Velvet on TV, and from that time on I had my heart set on riding horses." She began her training at riding academies in Miami. After a year of a pre-veterinary course in junior college, she became an exercise girl at Tropical Park. Then, after repeated tries at breaking the sex barrier, she rode and won her first race six weeks ago in Charles Town, W. Va. "Horse racing is pretty rank [rough]," she admits, but she guards herself from rank track language by stuffing her ears with cotton before each race. Though some jockeys still resent women encroaching on their livelihood, their ranks cannot help looking up to Barbara Jo. At 5 ft. 5 in., she says, "most of the jockeys only come up to my shoulders. So when they go to take a group picture, I kind of bend my knees."
As if the jockeys' tender egos weren't bruised enough already, Barbara Jo has another little feminine squelcher up her silken sleeve. Come May 3, she plans to ride Picnic Fare at Churchill Downs—thus becoming the first girl jockey to ride in the Kentucky Derby.