Henderson jockey dies

Monday, July 24, 2000 | 10:25 a.m.

Ginger Welch, one of the leading jockeys at Les Bois Park and a Henderson native, died after she was thrown in a race by her horse, which then fell on her. She was 37.

Shortly after the start of an 870-yard quarterhorse race Saturday night in Boise, Idaho, Welch's 4-year-old gelding, Porthos, either took a bad step or clipped heels with another horse and fell.

"She was right beside me, then her horse fell," said another jockey, Cammie Papineau. "There was nothing she could have done."

Welch was treated by medics at the track then taken to Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, where she died. Her death was the first in the track's 30-year history.

Born Ginger Tremain on Jan. 15, 1963, Welch started riding at Pennsylvania and New Jersey tracks. It was there that she learned under Julie Krone, the sport's winningest woman jockey.

Welch returned to the West and established herself at tracks in Idaho and Washington. She rode a longshot to win Idaho's first $100,000 race, the Centennial Cup, in 1990.

In 1995, Welch won the National Ladies Jockey Challenge at the Downs at Albuquerque (N.M.) as well as three Idaho Cup races. She is survived by her husband, Dave Welch, their daughter and a son from an earlier marriage.