By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Sports

Monday, May 17, 2021.

It was pouring rain, as eight horses paraded through slop toward the starting gate. An $8,000 maiden claiming race was first on the card at Louisiana Downs.

The weather conditions were challenging for a veteran rider.

How about for a jockey in her first race?

“Everyone worried if I would be able to change my goggles enough,” Brianne Culp remembers. “But since I was in front, I didn’t have to worry about it too much.”

You don’t get much mud kicked in your face when you run ahead of the competition.

Culp and her mount, “Pricey,” dueled for the early lead, kept up the pace, took the lead in mid-stretch, and won by a length-and-a-half.

“To be honest, it all happened so fast,” Culp said. “It didn’t really sink in. I was like, ‘Man, that was so easy. Why doesn’t everyone do it this way?’”

The numbers show Culp winning her first race was not beginner’s luck. Last year, the Cleveland, Ohio native earned more than $114,000 in 84 starts. This year, Culp — one of three female jockeys at Louisiana Downs — has earned more than $407,000. She is ninth in the overall standings. Monday, Culp finished in the money twice, including a win in the second race.

“I’m doing all right,” said Culp, whose husband is trainer Keith Austin. “I could always do better. I’m just going to keep on trying my hardest and come out every day and try to get it done.”

Culp’s journey to the track has taken more turns that she navigates during a race. Most jockeys start riding at a young age. Culp was 29 when she got her first mount. Heck, Culp didn’t even lay hands on a horse until she was in college — and it happened at her second college.

Culp first went to Kettering University in Flint, Mich., where she studied biomedical engineering.

“I was at the top of my (high school) class in math and science,” Culp said. “I got a full ride to school, so it was kind of like a no-brainer. It is one of the best engineering schools in the United States. So, when they gave me a full-ride, I was like ‘Ok, I guess I will go.’”

But coming up with better ways to make different parts of the body wasn’t enough to hold Culp’s interest. So, she went in search of a “horse” college, where she could learn about an animal she had seen, but never touched.

“To me, only the rich people had horses,” Culp said. “And we were far from that. Whenever I asked my mom if I could do horseback riding lessons, or even at the fair where they do those pony rides and you go around in a circle, I would always just watch. We didn’t have the money. It was expensive.”

Culp chose Judson College — “a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, Alabama.” She made the Equestrian team and worked on a farm.

“I got a lot of hands-on experience in how to ride a horse, and the basics, because I had never put a halter or a bridle on a horse.”

When it came time to graduate, Culp needed a job. Someone in that “middle of nowhere” town told her, “Well, you’re small enough to be a jockey. I have a friend in Texas.”

So, Culp headed west. After working with quarter horses at Retama Park (near San Antonio), she switched to thoroughbreds. Culp now has almost 300 starts at the Downs, Fair Grounds, and Oaklawn Park.

“She is very pleasant to be around, always in an excellent mood and smiling,” said trainer Mark Dison, who has used Culp on some of his horses. “There doesn’t seem to be much that can make her nervous on a horse. She lets the horse do what it wants. She doesn’t fight it.”

What Culp does fight is some trainers’ attitude toward female jockeys.

“Sometimes you go into barns, and they say, ‘We don’t ride girls here,’ or ‘You’re not strong enough.’  There are more excuses for them to give me, but so far, it’s been all right. It’s not terrible. It’s still a man’s game and a man’s sport, but you just have to push through that and keep on going.”

Unlike a lot of trainers, Dison doesn’t have a problem giving mounts to women. In fact, he prefers a female rider.

“I feel like you get 100 percent because they are trying to prove they can make it in a male-dominated sport,” Dison explained. “(Also), almost all females can get a horse to relax. A lot of men can’t.”

There goes Culp again — doing something others can’t, like winning their first race.

Louisiana Downs races Saturday through Tuesday. Weekend post time is 1:45 p.m. Weekday post time is 3:05.

Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com

Photo courtesy of FRANK TROSCLAIR

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