PETER CONRADI/Bullet News
FORT ERIE – And with that, the best female jockey in Canadian history rides off into the November sunset.
It seems so sudden, which she insists it definitely is not. It seems so easy, which, again, she says could not be further from reality. And it seems so final. That much she allows is true.
She doesn’t promise there will never be second thoughts or what-ifs, or tears. She’ll miss it – the camaraderie, the adrenalin, the pounding hooves, the mud in her face, the competition, the sheer joy of success. Ah, yes, the success. Goodness knows there’s been lots of that.
But there won’t be any Brett Favre-like comebacks, either. Retirement is for keeps in her world.
Francine Villeneuve, a trailblazer if ever there was one, is content with her decision to pack it in with 1,000 career wins in her pocket. Yes, it feels a little strange Tuesday afternoon, gazing out onto the infield at the Old Fort under a cloudless late autumn sky, a brisk breeze blowing in her face, knowing there is but one ride remaining at the place that has been her second home for the last 15 years.
But the 47-year-old Ottawa native is stepping aside at the top of her game, and that really does help make everything OK.
“I’m glad I can leave when I am riding well, when I am healthy, and that I accomplished what I set out to do,” she said Tuesday, still basking in the attention from well wishers. “I’ve been doing this for quite a few years. It’s going to take some getting used to. But it’s not like I decided overnight. It’s something that’s been a long time coming. It’s the right time.
“I believe that when you make that statement that you are retiring that you should stick with it. Hopefully I don’t regret saying this.”
Villeneuve capped her remarkable career Monday afternoon at Fort Erie, riding Red Hot Doll in the $30,000 Fan’s Stakes, hitting win No. 1,000 on the second last day of the 2011 season. She had one race scheduled Tuesday, but after the previous 24 hours, that was pretty much an anticlimax. When she crossed the line Monday and heard the official result, her future was set. She climbed down and almost immediately broke the news in a post-race interview that she was leaving.
The 1,000-win milestone is “a big one for all riders, let alone women,” Villeneuve said. “Reaching 1,000 is saying that you’ve been successful as a rider. I was always the leading money (earner), the leader in wins, so now I’ve been able to do this.”
Villeneuve said she’d spend Tuesday night celebrating, and then start packing up for the move to Tampa Bay after 15 years of calling Fort Erie home. She and husband Bruce Anderson, a farrier, own a farm in Florida. She’s headed down there later this week, not trusting this mild fall to last much longer. Villeneuve is staying in the horse business, just not riding them anymore for a living.
“I’ve made some connections with people who breed a rare breed of horse in the U.S.,” she said. “I’ve done some work with them and they are giving me three of their very best horses. So, I’m going to take over that and I’ll be breeding, showing and promoting.”
Staying close to the stables will no doubt help ease the transition for the life-long horsewoman. Villeneuve grew up on a family farm and was always near the animals she loves. One of her first jobs after attending Humber College for equine studies was as a hot-walker at Woodbine in 1987. Not long after, that very same year, in fact, she was in the saddle, on her way toward carving a place for herself in the sport’s history books.
With only four years experience under her belt, Villeneuve was the first female jockey to ride in the Queen’s Plate on board Wilderness Song, which finished second to Dance Smartly in 1991.
In 2005, she finished a very close second in the $500,000 Prince of Wales Stakes, riding Autumn Snow, a 16 to 1 underdog. She’s also ridden in two Breeders Cup races and she won the Avelino Gomez award, which is presented to Canadian jockeys for their contribution to horse racing.
Villeneuve walked away from the sport once before, taking a three-year break after 2006 to care for her son and spend more time with her husband.
“He was travelling a lot, and I wanted to be at home and see what it would be like to be away from the tracks. I didn’t have anything in mind to do, but I also never called it a retirement.”
She had 934 wins at the time, and it was partially seeing how close she was to 1,000 that brought her back in 2010.
“I missed it,” she said. “And I never knew how close I was to 1,000 wins. I knew I was around that, but didn’t know the exact number. It seemed like it was reachable, and something to come back for.”
Villeneuve leaves having ridden in more than 8,100 races. Her entries have earned more than $15 million in purses.
