Wantha Davis
{{short description|American jockey}}
Wantha Davis (January 3, 1917 – September 18, 2012) was an American female jockey in thoroughbred horse racing.
Biography
Born Wantha Lorena Bangs near Liberal, Kansas, she married horse breeder Lendol Davis. After graduating from high school, Bangs rode a freight train to Texas, where she found work in the stables at a thoroughbred racetrack. A year later she was back in Kansas, where she began her career as a jockey. Competing in a male-dominated sport, over the next twenty-plus years Davis won more than one thousand races at a time when women were refused licensing.
Her success was such that many major sports writers considered her to be among the top jockeys in the United States. In 1949, she defeated the great Johnny Longden in an exhibition match race at Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico, prompting Longden to immediately demand a rematch.{{cite news |title=Longden Beaten by Woman Rider In Match Race at Agua Caliente; Johnny Issues Challenge for Return Meeting With Wantha Davis After His Mount Is Carried Wide in Betless Event |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1949/12/19/archives/longden-beaten-by-woman-rider-in-match-race-at-agua-caliente-johnny.html |access-date=28 January 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=19 December 1949}} A few months later, on April 30, 1950, Davis followed up with a similar match race victory over another future National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame jockey, Jack Westrope.
In 2004, Davis was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the National Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth, Texas.
She died peacefully on September 18, 2012, surrounded by her family.{{cite web |url=http://www.aqha.com/Racing/News-Articles/Wantha-Davis-Dies.aspx |title=Q-Racing: Wantha Davis Dies |publisher=Aqha.com |date=1917-01-03 |access-date=2013-05-23 |archive-date=2013-06-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603142612/http://www.aqha.com/Racing/News-Articles/Wantha-Davis-Dies.aspx |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/statesman/obituary.aspx?pid=160004745#fbLoggedOut |title=Wantha Lorena Davis Obituary: View Wantha Davis's Obituary by Austin American-Statesman |publisher=Legacy.com |date= |access-date=2013-05-23}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.girljockey.com/ Wantha Davis website]
- [http://www.cowgirl.net/honorees/Wantha_Davis%20.aspx Wantha Davis at the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Davis, Wantha}}
Category:People from Liberal, Kansas
Category:American female jockeys
Category:Cowgirl Hall of Fame inductees
Category:21st-century American women
Category:20th-century American sportswomen
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