Former thoroughbred owner and stakes winning trainer Audrey Riker, 89, died Oct. 30 at her home in White Hall, Md.
Audrey Riker (Photo by Isobel Ellis)Riker trained horses over fences and on the flat for five decades, beginning in the late 1950’s until her retirement in early 2000.
Riker’s love of horses began in her youth at her parent’s farm in Holmdel, N.J.
Her equestrian passion grew as a student at Garrison Forest School in Owings Mills, Md., and again as a member of the riding club at Vassar College.
After Vassar, Riker moved to Maryland, became a member of the Elkridge-Harford Hunt and taught French and history at Oldfields School in Sparks, Md.,before committing to a full-time career as a trainer.
RIKER'S long path as a trainer began working for Racing Hall of Fame steeplechase jockey and trainer D.M. “Mikey” Smithwick, eventually rising to assistant trainer for many years before branching out on her own.
Golden Fly, the first successful runner Riker owned and trained, emerged to be Maryland Steeplechase Association Timber Horse of the Year in 1959.
By 1974 Riker was among the leading steeplechase trainers in the country.
Her renown was boosted in part by her success running Golden Fly’s daughter, Perfect Cast, who continued the family tradition winning races including the Pennsylvania Hunt Cup.
Perfect Cast ran in the demanding Maryland Hunt Cup three times, losing twice to Racing Hall of Fame and Grand National winner Ben Nevis II.
“Let it not be imagined that Ben won without being challenged. That gallant 11-year-old mare Perfect Cast applied constant pressure to the front running champion. Their duel resembled a ballet -- a superb pas-de-deux of a prima ballerina and the world’s finest dancer,” wrote Missy Warfield in Maryland Horse Magazine, “They abetted each other to the peak of excellence.”
In the late 1970s, Riker shifted her skills to thoroughbred racing in the mid-Atlantic region and spent her summers at Monmouth Park, sharing the shed row with Racing Hall of Fame trainer Frank Whitely.
Monmouth Park was, in a sense, family – close to where she was raised and providing an opportunity to train for relatives known since childhood: Anne Ellis, Hope Jones and Isabelle de Tomaso, all daughters of Amory Haskell, a founder of Monmouth Park.
At the time of her retirement in 2000, Riker's small stable of runners had earned more than $1.25 million in purses from over 1000 starts.
Her distinctive career spanned a time when women were often banned for being even near horses at racetrack stables and when women represented less than one percent of licensed thoroughbred trainers in the United States.
Audrey Riker was a direct descendant of the early New York Dutch settler Abraham Rycken who arrived in the colony of New Amsterdam in 1638 and later acquired land in what is now Newtown, Queens, as well as an island which still bears the Riker name.
Audrey Riker, of White Hall, Md., was preceded in death by her parents, William Chandler Riker and Mary Jackson Riker, sisters Anne “Pam” Jackson Riker and Margaret “Peggy” Riker Harding.
Surviving Audrey is brother the Rev. William C. Riker of Locust, N.J., numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, AA members she gathered from her more than 44 years of sobriety, and Deborah and Terry Erickson and their sons, T.R. and Andrew, who she loved as her chosen family.
A celebration of her life will be announced at a future date.
(Reprinted from the National Steepelchase Association, Published with permission from the Riker family on Nov.1, 2024)
