Pioneer jockey Jane Driggers Proctor dies at 61

Former jockey Jane Driggers Proctor, a leader among the Pacific Northwest’s pioneer women riders, died of a malignant brain tumor Monday at her home in Ocala, Florida. Known for her deep love of horses, she was 61.

As Jane Driggers, she was the most successful female rider in the history of Spokane’s former Playfair Race Course. She had begun her career at Portland Meadows on June 10, 1972, when, as a petite high-school sophomore, she won with her first mount, a hard-knocking claimer named Hi Sheri. A month later, she and another teenager, Gary Baze, swung into action as Playfair began its summer and fall season.

Baze, a member of this state’s best-known horse racing family, led the track’s apprentice riders, launching a Washington Horse Racing Hall of Fame career. Driggers left for the Oregon State Fair meet at Salem, broke her right hand and returned to school. The next spring, she began to ride regularly and, within 18 months, became the region’s leading female jockey.

She rode her first Spokane winner on July 4, 1973. By meet’s end, she was the West’s leading apprentice of either sex and was elected Inland Northwest Woman Athlete of the Year.

After riding 33 winners here in 1974, she rode Shaynaman to 1975 Horse of the Meeting honors at Portland and guided sprint star Grey Papa to victory in the Memorial Day Handicap at Longacres, the Seattle-area track. She was the first woman to ride a stakes winner at Portland Meadows, Playfair and Longacres.

Driggers later rode in Northern California, where she met her future husband, Harry “Hap” Proctor, the son of a big-time racehorse trainer. After winning almost 500 races, she retired in the 1980s. Soon afterward, he succeeded his brother as the manager of Glen Hill Farm, a thoroughbred breeding showplace in Ocala.

In addition to her husband, and two older brothers, she is survived by two grown sons.