Julie Krone, the greatest female jockey of all time, told The Post she is coming out of retirement.
“I tried to stay away but they pulled me back in,” Krone said by phone from California, quoting Michael Corleone in “The Godfather, Part III.” She expects to start accepting mounts at Santa Anita or Hollywood Park a week or so after next Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup. Brian Beach, who’s also the agent for Mike Smith, will handle her book.
“I feel great physically, and I’ve never had a problem with my weight,” said Krone, who in 2000 became the first woman inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. “I wouldn’t be attacking this circuit unless I felt pretty good about it.”
Krone, 39, began riding in 1981, won 3,545 races from 20,470 mounts and earned $81 million in purses. More than holding her own with the boys, she captured numerous training titles at several tracks and won the Belmont Stakes aboard Colonial Affair in 1993.
Following a series of ugly spills and severe injuries, and depressed by the recent death of her mother, Krone hung up her tack in April 1999 and started a second career in broadcasting, working as a commentator for TVG and Hollywood Park.
But over this past summer, Krone, a lifelong horsewoman, began galloping race horses again at San Luis Rey Downs near her home in Del Mar, Calif., for trainers Laura De Seroux and Dick Mandella.
“I started to get the itch,” she said. “I started feeling competitive, and thought, ‘Wow, that’s weird.’ I was so burnt out when I retired, but I couldn’t fight it anymore. It takes on a life of its own. I felt really good about riding.
“So I went to Brian and asked if he’d be my agent. He asked me if I was serious, and I said, ‘Let’s rock!’ “