As patient as Derbe Glass said she was trying to be as she waited for her first win as a professional jockey, she was starting to get a little anxious about when it would finally happen.
It did Friday night, on her 13th career mount, as the 23-year-old split horses in mid-stretch to guide I See the Stars to a neck victory in the final race on Monmouth Park's six-race Friday twilight card in Oceanport, N.J.
“I'm just very happy,” she said. “It's a combination of exhilaration and relief.”
The Wilmington, Del, native, in her first full year of riding, had come close at the Monmouth meet with three seconds and two thirds from her first 12 mounts. This time she found a way to break through.
“The win was important but the key for me is to keep improving and to keep progressing,” she said. “That's how I kept from getting too frustrated, knowing that every ride I've had has been a learning experience.”
Glass rode in two amateur races in 2019, winning one at Parx, and had planned to continue riding on the amateur circuit last year until COVID-19 derailed those plans.
“So I came to Monmouth Park and started galloping horses and I fell in love with the place and the people here were great to me,” she said. “This year I just felt it was time (to ride professionally). I'd been galloping horses for five or six years. I felt like it was time to try. I picked up a good agent (Steve Worsley) and here we are.”
I See the Stars paid $11.20 to win.
Part of the “welcome party” that helped Derbe Glass make her first winner a memorable one
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