Lesley Bellden, Julie Krone added to Jockeys Hall of Fame
The chairman of the Ballina Jockey Club, Dr Bob Jemison, has released the names of the two new additions to the Iris Nielsen Lady Jockeys Hall of Fame for 2102.
The Selection Committee has met and the Directors have accepted their recommendation that Lesley Bellden and Julie Krone join the list of inductees.
The induction will take place at the Iris Nielsen Memorial meeting on Sunday 29th January 2012.
Lesley Bellden, the first woman to ride a winner at Randwick, will be present to accept her honour at the track where she won the Ballina Bracelet in the 1980s when it was a $40,000 event.
Julie Krone, the rider of 3704 winners and the only woman to have ridden a winner in America’s Triple Crown, will also be trackside to receive her award.
Although she retired in 2004, she turned down an offer to be a participant in the TV hit show Survivor to ride at the Legends Race at the Doncaster St Ledger Carnival in the UK in September 2011, and she recorded another victory with a ride the Guardian newspaper described as “a class apart”.
The Iris Nielsen of 2012 will be the fifth running of the event and to help finance the event the Ballina Jockey club has published a souvenir brochure and the lady jockeys in the Hall of Fame have agreed to make themselves available to sign it at the racetrack on the day.
Copies can be purchased through the club’s website at www.ballinajockeyclub.com.au or at the track.
