Ellis Park
Great-grandmother Martin rides winner at 63
SV Photography Jockey Sue Martin
No one is quite sure whether it’s a record, but when Sue Martin, 63, won the first race Sunday at Ellis aboard Golden Fire Fly, she might have become the oldest female jockey ever to win a race in North America.
News archives say Diane King also was 63 when she rode a winner at Thistledown in August 2013, when it is believed she set the record in that category.
Martin rides races infrequently, and when she does, it’s almost always for her husband, trainer Wayne Martin. Together, the couple has seven children, 18 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren. Martin won her first race in 1973 in Idaho. Before Sunday, her last winner came in January at Tampa Bay Downs.
