Julie Krone | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘They Just Run For Her’: Apprentice Jockey Ferrin Peterson Celebrates Four-Win Day At Monmouth

The hints were there that something special was going to happen for apprentice Ferrin Peterson, Julie Krone said. Her work ethic, the way horses seem to respond to her, the increased experience she has gained by riding all summer at Monmouth Park – all were tell-tale signs, she said.

So the Hall of Fame rider-turned-jockey-agent was not the least bit surprised when Peterson, whom she represents, won four of the 10 races last Sunday at Monmouth Park, giving her 12 winners from 64 mounts heading into Friday night's six-race twilight card.

“It's the way horses respond to her that you notice right away,” said Krone. “They seem to find another gear for her. They just run for her.”

Peterson, 28, now finds herself in the midst of what looks to be a hotly-contested race for the second spot in the track's rider standings behind runaway leader Paco Lopez (30 wins). She's right there with accomplished veterans Antonio Gallardo (15 wins), Joe Bravo (13) and Jose Ferrer (12). Hector Diaz Jr. is also part of that logjam with 12 wins.

“I'm very pleased with the way things are going,” said Peterson, who is listed to ride in four of the six races on Monmouth Park's Friday card. “It feels like I am starting to pick up momentum. The trainers here have really helped me get started. Pat McBurney let me gallop for him when racing was postponed here for two months because of COVID-19. It feels like it was a long wait to finally get started in July.

“It just has been a really weird start. Not having Julie on the backstretch, where she could have really helped out business get going, was a bit of a setback, too. So I was unsure of how the meet would go. But I'm very happy with the way things have gone since the racing started.”

Peterson, a licensed veterinarian, is a latecomer to riding, turning to the profession full-time a year and half ago. Krone says her intelligence and willingness to learn are two of her biggest strengths.

“We're superstitious at the racetrack so I'm afraid to say too much because you know you will jinx it,” said Krone. “But she has never made the same mistake twice. All I have to do is show her a video or explain a technique and she gets it immediately.

“Her other big strength is that she communicates with the horses. And there is never any hesitation to accept instruction or a correction. She is totally into her development as a jockey.”

Peterson said she is always tugging at Krone to show her more when it comes to technique or the nuances of riding.

“I told Julie as long as there is something I can improve in my riding each week I want to work on it so the trainers can see I am trying to improve and that I have the work ethic – even if I am not winning,” she said. “Last Sunday there were a few things that Julie worked on with me that just really clicked with me.

“People want to see numbers, so riding four winners on a card was significant to me. Getting longshots to run second and third is good but trainers and owners want to see wins.”

The California native and former college pole vaulter has never shied from hard work, at one point juggling college schoolwork and being a track athlete while also trying to make inroads on her goal of being a jockey as he worked toward veterinary school. That work ethic has carried over to her constant presence in the backstretch and working with Krone on dark days.

And finishing second to Lopez, she says, would be a major achievement this early in her career. Lopez is seeking his seventh riding title at Monmouth Park.

“I do definitely think it's possible (to get second),” she said. “We're only halfway through the meet. Now that things seem to be connecting that's definitely my goal – to chase second. And, really, to chase first. Who knows? Anything can happen.”

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Krone Returns To Monmouth In New Role As Agent For Veterinarian/Apprentice Jockey Peterson

Julie Krone immediately saw some familiar traits in Ferrin Peterson the first time she met her, and then after she watched her ride: the burning desire to succeed, the competitiveness, the work ethic, how comfortable she was on and around horses.

“When I see someone like that it reminds me of myself,” she said.

That mirror image was enough to prompt Krone, the retired Hall of Fame jockey, to return to the sport she loves after years watching from afar as a mom to her daughter, who is now 15.

Krone will be back at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. – where she won riding titles from 1987-89 – when the 37-day meet begins on Friday, July 3, in a new role as the agent for Peterson, an apprentice trying to make inroads as a rider.

At 28, Peterson is much older than most jockeys trying to launch their careers. But she has a valid reason for that. She's a licensed veterinarian who completed medical school at the University of California-Davis in May of 2019. That was after excelling as a pole vaulter during her undergraduate college years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“Anyone who is changing their career path like this after going to medical school clearly has a passion that won't go away,” said Krone. “The drive is there to succeed as a jockey. That's what it takes. That's what impressed me so much and drew me to her.

Julie Krone

“She has a love for the sport that is infectious. She made me remember how much I love this.”

Peterson, who has spent the past few months galloping horses at Overbrook Farm in nearby Colts Neck in preparation for the Monmouth Park meet, met her future agent when Krone was doing a book signing in California. They hit it off immediately.

“Having a mentor like Julie Krone is a tremendous benefit for someone like me,” said Peterson. “She has done so much for the sport. I just try to be a sponge around her, learning whatever I can from her.”

Peterson began her career in January of 2019 at Golden Gate before trying the competitive Del Mar meet. Krone convinced her to come East this summer and to use Monmouth Park as her home base, with the added benefit of being able to ride at other tracks within easy driving distance during Monmouth Park's dark days.

“The goal is to ride to ride as many days as possible within reason,” said Peterson, who is also a certified acupuncturist. “That's one of the advantages of being on the East Coast and at Monmouth Park.”

Krone isn't sure that being a licensed veterinarian will be much of an advantage to Peterson right now – “It's not going to help you out there splitting horses,” she said – but she can see long-term benefits because of her familiarity with horses.

Peterson, though, says you can never have too much knowledge about dealing with horses.

“Working with horses on the ground helps when you are working with them on their backs,” she said. “Understanding horses, how they function anatomically, helps you think of how to balance on a horse. It helps knowing how their mind works and their behavior. The more you're around horses the better you get to know them. They're such intricate creatures.”

The 5-4, 108-pound Peterson does get some quizzical looks about her career shift, but says she would not have done it any other way.

“It's interesting becoming a jockey through becoming a veterinarian,” she said. “But I'm really glad it happened this way because it was the right order for me. I want to know as much as I can about horses. I am always wanting to learn more about them.

“I don't think I would be satisfied just being a jockey and clearly I wasn't satisfied just being a veterinarian either. So combining the two has been the perfect fit for what I am seeking in my life.”

Having Krone's star recognition doesn't hurt either when it comes to securing mounts.

“People know who she is right away,” said Peterson, who currently owns 15 career victories. “She has been good for the sport. Trainers are happy to hear from her. She has the credibility that people listen. And being mentored by her is an amazing opportunity.”

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Are Krone and Peterson an Unbeatable Team?

From the TDN LOOK

Passion is a funny thing.

What is it, you wonder, about one place or another, one person or another, one career or another that is so compelling that the person caught in its grip will do anything to have it?

Ferrin Peterson can’t exactly tell you why she will at least temporarily put aside the eight years of study and sacrifice that earned her a veterinary degree from UC Davis, one of the top schools in the country, and a lucrative-and safe-career as a large-animal vet. Nor can she say why she’s willing to let her acupuncture skills and certification lie dormant, for now.

All she knows is this: “I’m following my passion.”

That alone would be an interesting story: girl sets aside career as a veterinarian to pursue her dream of being a jockey. But Peterson took the interest in her choice to a new level when she hired Julie Krone to be her agent, and announced that they would get their start together at Krone’s old stomping grounds, Monmouth Park, when the meet opens July 3.

Peterson is 5’4″, 108 pounds, with a polite manner. At 28, she brings a maturity and confidence to her career not found in most seven-pound apprentices. In all likelihood, she is the best-educated jockey in history, and her accomplishments go beyond that. She is also a certified acupuncturist and was a Division I pole vaulter at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo who reached the state finals in high school and at junior college.

Krone met Peterson at Del Mar last summer, and she made the snap decision to become involved in her story, and to represent her in her own first try at being a jockey’s agent.

“She had a reputation for being the girl who loves racehorses so much that she’s going to ride races while she goes to vet school,” said Krone. “She wants to be a jockey with passion of nothing I’ve ever seen in my life. Literally. Like, unmeasurable craziness. I’ve seen people try to talk her out of it, and they’re like, `Oh, you’re a nice girl. You’ve got a great education.’ And the way she sees it, she’s going to be a jockey until she’s old, and then she can be a veterinarian.”

“This is literally what I wanted to do my entire life,” said Peterson, who graduated a year ago, and felt the call of riding races pulling her back to the track full-time after getting on horses for trainers in the morning during her final years at school. “When I was a young kid, I was always talking about becoming a jockey. I grew up on the back of a horse.”

Monmouth was Krone’s idea. She said that the strength of the jockey colony and the small fields that have plagued Southern California make it a tough place to get your start. Krone parlayed her own success at Monmouth, where she won the riding title from 1987-1989, into a career on the New York and later Southern California circuits. And it’s not the only page they’ll take out of the Krone playbook.

John Forbes and his then-assistant Pat McBurney played a key part in getting Krone’s career off the ground when Forbes, the perennial leading trainer at Monmouth at the time, used her as his regular rider. McBurney has now taken over the reins at the stable, and when it came time to entrust Peterson’s career to someone, Krone sent her east to work with McBurney. She spent this spring exercising eight or nine horses a day for the trainer at Overbrook Farm, where McBurney stabled his horses until Monmouth Park opened for training. McBurney said that when Krone called, he listened.

“I received a call from Julie Krone and she asked me about an apprentice rider coming out to Monmouth Park this summer,” McBurney recalled. “If Julie was excited about a rider, of course we were going to listen to that. So she came out to Overbrook and has just been galloping and breezing horses. We only have a half-mile track here, so you can’t kick on too fast, but she’s doing very good; gets along with the horses as she learns about them, getting them to relax and everything. It’s hard to say what kind of jockey she is at this point, but has a great way with horses. She’s a very hard worker with a great attitude. Everyone likes her in the barn, and everyone is interested to see her get riding and see how she can do.”

Krone was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 2000, and retired for the second and final time in 2004 after winning 3,704 races in a career that spanned almost 20 years. She has taken a particular interest in Peterson since meeting her at Del Mar last year, moving her into the home she shares with her husband, the writer Jay Hovdey, and their daughter in order to more efficiently impart her knowledge. They have reviewed films and form, done strength training, strengthened other muscles by surfing and playing pickleball, and have formed a strong friendship as well as working relationship.

Before they met, Peterson had been riding at Golden Gate while she completed her clinical year in veterinary school, but she always had her sights set on the Southern California circuit. “I thought, `I’m going to go to where I know of the best jockeys and trainers and try to learn from them. And if I don’t make it, then at least I tried my hardest and had an awesome experience.'”

She had had a handful of winners when, that summer at Del Mar, she set out to meet Krone, who was doing a book signing on Pacific Classic Day. Peterson saw the line that had formed, and realized that it wouldn’t be a good opportunity to talk, but happened to run into on her way out of the track that night. She introduced herself, and Krone invited her to her house to talk the next day. The following week, Krone suggested that she stay in San Diego and train with her, and return to racing in the spring.

For the past 15 years, Krone’s nearly full-time occupation has been as a mother. While she has done some racing commentating work here and there, her main focus has been her daughter Lorelei, a gifted singer and actress who is a community theater regular in the San Diego area who hopes to pursue that interest in college. Lorelei tearfully confessed her lack of interest in horses when she was young, and Krone has supported her passion for theater, helping out by painting sets, sewing costumes and even acting a bit here and there.

But in Peterson, she might have found not only her return to the sport, but a new career after her daughter heads off to school. While Peterson is 28, Krone has definitely taken her under her wing as if she’s her second child.

To read the rest of this story at the TDN Look, or to watch the video or hear it as a podcast, click here.

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