Rosemary Homeister, Jr.

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Rosemary Homeister, Jr. (born July 5, 1972 in Hollywood, Florida) is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing. 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 chose to leave to try to develop a career in racing.

Rosemary 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 female to win the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in the United States. Since then, Homeister has won more than 1700 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 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.

Rosemary Homeister retired in November of 2004 after thirteen years of competition having won 1,726 races from 12,907 starts. However, she returned to racing in June of 2006 and on September 3rd was inducted into the Calder Race Course Hall of Fame.

As of December 2006, she is in the process of divorcing jockey Jose Ferrer, according to an interview she gave TVG Network's Lady Luck.^[1]

Racing honors:

1992 - The first female to win the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey
2000 - No. 1 in wins among female jockeys in the United States
2001 - First female jockey to win Puerto Rico's Clasico Internacional de Caribe
2001 - Only female rider to win the riding title at Hialeah Park
2001 - No. 1 in wins among female jockeys in the United States
2003 - First jockey to receive the Babe Didrikson Zaharias Award
2006 - Inducted into the Calder Race Course Hall of Fame