Penny Ann Early, one of the first female riders to be licensed in the United States who was a victim of discrimination in the late 1960s, died on June 23 of an apparent suicide, according to two of her friends. Early was 80. She was living in Tennessee at the time of her death. Early had a brief career as a jockey in the late 1960s and early 1970s, winning a race at Suffolk Downs on April 19, 1969, the $10,000 Lady Godiva Handicap, that consisted entirely of seven female riders. Diane Crump rode the second-place finisher, ahead of Tuesdee Testa on the third-place runner. Early rode in 12 races in 1969. The same year, Mary Bacon won 55 races as an apprentice, finishing 23rd on the list of apprentice riders, at the time the highest position in history for a female rider. Early attempted to ride in 1968 at Churchill Downs at the age of 25. Her first mount was scratched because of a muddy track on a day when male riders threatened to boycott the race because of her presence, according to a report in The New York Times. A few days later, Early was replaced by a male rider on another mount. Later that same week, Early was scheduled to ride the 2-year-old filly Witness in the fourth race on a Thursday at Churchill Downs, but the race was postponed to the ninth race of the day by track management in an effort to find replacement riders for the other horses, The New York Times reported. None of the male jockeys would ride against Early. The race was eventually canceled. Two months later, Barbara Jo Rubin became the first female rider to win a race at Charles Town Racetrack in West Virginia. Early did not ride in 1970, and was winless with one mount in 1971. The following year, Early was working as an exercise rider for trainer Willard Proctor. Early was the regular rider of Convenience, who won a $250,000 winner-take-all match race against Typecast at Hollywood Park. “As far as horsemanship, she’s probably the best female I’ve ever been around, a terrific hand on a horse,” said former exercise rider and racing official John Buccalo. “She could match with the men as well. “She wanted to ride races really badly. She had a tough time.” Before her brief riding career, Early gained national attention in April 1965 as a guest on the panel show “What’s My Line” at a time she worked as an exercise rider at Chicago tracks. The mystery guest on the same program was Barbra Streisand. The circumstances surrounding the Churchill Downs boycott gave Early ample publicity. A week after the boycotted race, Early was signed to a contract by the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association. According to The New York Times, she joined a game against the Los Angeles Stars in the first quarter. Wearing a mini-skirt and a turtleneck with the No. 3 on the back, for her number of attempted mounts at Churchill Downs, Early inbounded the ball to a teammate, who promptly called timeout. Early was pulled from the game to a standing ovation, and later signed autographs, according to reports. Early trained from 1976 to 1988 at Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico, south of San Diego. Early won 56 races from 666 runners. She later was at the forefront of trying to keep Caliente open in the early 1990s prior to the track’s closure in the spring of 1992, according to retired trainer Randy Hadden. In later years, Early worked as an exercise rider and taught riding, Hadden said. “Sometimes we wouldn’t see each other for months or a year, but we were always a phone call away to relive the stories of the crazy things we did as young racetrackers,” Haddoen said on Wednesday. Hadden said Early’s passing “shocked the heck out of me. It shocked everyone else who knew her.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.