In Friday's fourth race at Pimlico, eight retired female jockeys will compete in a race to benefit breast cancer research. The riders, all middle-aged, broke ground for women in the sport of kings. In doing so, they often faced daunting pressure to beg off of the track.

Take Barbara Jo Rubin, who finally bolted through the glass ceiling in February, 1969 with a victory at Charles Town (W.Va.).  Before that, however, Rubin had struck out in a bid to race at Tropical Park (Fla.). There, she said, male jockeys turned on her after welcoming her into the fold.

"Three of them posed for pictures with me, and wished me luck, before a race I was scheduled to run," said Rubin, now 60. "Then they all turned around and boycotted the race."

Even when she finally got onto the track, said Rubin, male bias ran high.

"People tried to discourage you," she said. "Riders would pull up short, in front of me, to try and make my horse stumble. At Aqueduct, (Hall of Famer) Bobby Ussery came right in front of me and cut me off. My horse stumbled but didn't go down.

"Another time, on a foggy night at Waterford Park (W.Va.), some jockeys got me in a pocket on the backside and whipped me a few times, trying to discourage me. So I backed off, went along the rail and won the race.

"Afterward, the stewards called me in and asked what had happened out there, because they couldn't see it for the fog. 'Nothing happened,' I said. A few of the guys thought I was cool and accepted me after that."

Jennifer Rowland Small, a Marylander who began riding in 1971, heard her share of taunts and sexist barbs.

"I just tried to rise above it," said Small, 57, who lives in Upperco. "II had ways to deal with (jockeys) who gave me a hard time. Number one was to beat them. They couldn't stand that. You didn't want to walk off the track with bettors yelling, 'You got beat by a girl.' "

While racing, Small soon quit wearing her hair in pigtails and put it up in a bun, so that when other riders peered over their shoulders to see who was charging up behind them, they couldn't tell it was her.

"I didn't want them to say, 'Here comes THAT GIRL,' and give them added incentive," she said.

Early on, she said, women's dressing quarters at tracks were primitive, at best.

"At Shenandoah, I had to change in a broom closet that had no lock on the door," Small said. "I was 19 at the time. I just pushed a plastic chair against the door."

P.J. Cooksey began riding in 1979, but even she weathered her share of the chauvanist storm.

"I remember a race where I rode a 4-to-5 shot who lost," said Cooksey, 52. "Turned out the horse was sick, but the bettors didn't know that.

"As I was walking back to the jocks' room, here comes this guy running toward me, screaming at me and cussing over the fence.

"He said, 'You can't ride. Why don't you go back to the kitchen?'

"I just looked at him and said, 'Sir, I can't cook, either.' "

PHOTOS: (Above, right) Retired jockeys Barbara Jo Rubin and P.J. Cooksey flex their muscles as fellow retired jockey Mary Russ looks on. (Above, left) Jennifer Rowland Small exercises Sneaky Lewis at Laurel Park.

Rubin, Cooksey and Russ photo by Kim Hairston/The Baltimore Sun
Small photo by Algerina Perna/The Baltimore Sun