Racing community mourns Shantel Lanerie

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Funeral arrangements for Shantel Lanerie are being handled by Melancon Funeral Home on North University Avenue in Carencro, La., where her body was being transported Monday following her death last week at a Louisville hospital.

Shantel Lanerie, 42, died Friday of sepsis following her treatment for Stage 1 breast cancer. She was married to Corey Lanerie, the perennial leading jockey at Churchill Downs, and her death has deeply affected many members of the racing community at Churchill and beyond.

An emotional tribute held between races Saturday at Churchill was attended by Corey Lanerie and the couple’s 10-year-old daughter, Brittlyn. They were joined by members of the family in town from Louisiana, along with the Churchill jockey colony and many other friends, horsemen, and racing officials.

“The Churchill Downs family is devastated by the sudden passing of Shantel Lanerie,” track president Kevin Flanery said in a media release shortly after her death. “This is a very sad day.”

Social media was flooded with messages of condolence. Typical of the posts was one on Instagram from Tiffany Bourque, a longtime friend who works in the Churchill racing office.

“Heaven gained the strongest, most beautiful angel,” she wrote. “Words can never express how much we all love you.”

On May 4, Shantel was one of 144 women who took part in the annual Survivors’ Parade on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill. Her story was told on the Big Board throughout the day and also was spotlighted in triumphant fashion by numerous media outlets, including Daily Racing Form, due to her prominence in the racing community. Jockeys at Churchill and other North American tracks that day wore pink armbands that read “Fight With Shantel.” Those bands resurfaced Friday at Churchill as word spread that her life was in peril.

Shantel was raised in Cecilia, La., as the daughter of trainer Riley Hebert and his wife, Katie. She and Corey met in his first year of riding at the old Evangeline Downs site in Carencro in 1991, and they were married in April 1997. Before Brittlyn’s birth in 2008, Shantel worked various racetrack jobs, including as a clocker’s assistant, a mutuel clerk, and a photographer’s assistant. In her later years, she and Brittlyn often attended the races and were known to be Corey’s greatest source of support.

Corey Lanerie has been the leading jockey at Churchill for 15 of the last 17 meets, dating to the 2012 spring meet. He also has been the leading jockey at other tracks, including Keeneland and Ellis Park, after having dominated at Louisiana and Texas tracks prior to moving to Kentucky in 2005.

As of Monday, the date and time for funeral services had yet to be determined. Burial will take place in the Evangeline Memorial Gardens, which is adjacent to the funeral home and is the site of an old bush track, Carenco Raceway. A memorial service at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Louisville, where Brittlyn attends school, is being planned for a later date.