Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 9 · column 1 of 6 · from the scan, no model involved
By Betsy Parker
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
In Virginia’s horse world, it pays to stand out from the crowd. Long famed for quality sporthorses and bloodstock buyers flock to the Commonwealth from near and far, seeking the Holy Trinity of horseflesh — athletic, handsome, talented.
Putting buyers and sellers together hasn’t always been easy, though. Great horses may lurk around every comer in the Piedmont — and buyers want in on the action — but there’s often a sort of disconnect keeping both at bay.
Until now.
Playing on the name recognition she gained from almost four decades in the international limelight, flat racing’s former “First Lady” Diane Crump has found a way to bring buyers to the sellers, showing off Virginia horses on the limitless world of the Internet.
Crump’s Front Royal-based Diane Crump Equine Sales sells upwards of 80 horses a year. She reaches forward with the power of the computer age to tempt buyers worldwide, relying on the old-fashioned virtues of honesty and integrity to build her business.
“It started out word of mouth,” said Crump, 57, of the way she parlayed the name recognition she earned on the racetrack as the first female flat jockey (see story, this section) into a flourishing horse sales business. After retiring from race riding, Crump trained for a time out of the Middleburg Training Center and at private farms in the area.
But when she retired from racing altogether in 1998, Crump “realized she had no skills other than those of the
89.5%