The rise and fall of Mary Bacon, the ‘Klansman’s Jane Fonda’
The ballad of Mary Bacon. On June 5th, 1969, at the age of 21, just 12 weeks after giving birth to her first child, she rode her first winner as a professional jockey at the Finger Lakes Race Track in upstate New York. No woman had ever won at the venue before. How could they have? Just three months had passed since the pioneering Diane Crump pushed open the door for female jockeys at a race in Florida. If Crump broke down the barrier, Bacon made an immediate mark too. “Why do you wear flowered underwear that everybody can see through your white riding pants ?” asked one journalist. “When I’m on the lead,” Bacon replied, “it gives the boys back there something to look at.” Competing like a woman determined to be more than a secondary footnote in the sport’s history, she became the first female to notch up 100 winners. On the way to that milestone, her legend quickly gathered pace . A five foot four, 94lbs waif, she was photogenic, quick-witted and fed reporters a steady supply of m...