Antonucci made a slow climb to stardom

In her 14th year as a trainer, Jena Antonucci became an overnight success.

While her story is not well-known, her love and passion for horses dated back to the age of 3 when she started riding show horses. Later she trained them.

She worked for D. Wayne Lukas, spent more than four years as a horse veterinary assistant and then opened a farm where horses could recover from injuries and be nurtured and cared for before they began racing.

Her love for horses spans 44 years and Saturday she crashed the male-dominated sport of thoroughbred racing when Arcangelo came through the rail at the head of the stretch to put away leader National Treasure and the other six challengers.

The sport of kings had a queen.

Her journey to the winner’s circle Saturday was not easy.

Thoroughbred racing is a tough profession with long hours and daily sacrifices.

Antonucci opened her farm Bella Inizio to care for young horses and those recovering from injuries.

In 2010 she got her trainer’s license and won his first race in March and sent a total of eight mounts to the track, winning twice and placing three times. In 2011 she had one race and earned $135.

Things started to turn around the next year, when Antonucci horses were in the money 22 times with 81 starts. In 2013 she had her best season with 288 starts, getting 15 wins, 29 places and showing 35 times for earnings of a little more than $1 million.

Owners were still not knocking down her door, but in 2015 her horses finished in the money 38% of the time. In 2016 she got her first stakes win when Doctor J Dub won the Grade III Turf Monster Stakes. But despite the fact her mounts hit the board 38% of the time, the mounts began to dwindle and last year she sent just 52 horses to the post.

Last year she also was asked to train Arcangelo and she took the perfect route to the Belmont Stakes, running him once as a 2-year-old and only three times this year. But after he won the Grade III Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park, she went under the radar.

Except for his workouts, which are public record.

Someone obviously believed in Antonucci and Arcangelo as they went off at 7-1 despite the fact he was lightly raced and she had never won a Grade I race.

The win put her in some rare air.

Julie Krone, the only female jockey to win a Triple Crown race — ironically in the Belmont Stakes; Mary Lou Whitney, an owner and breeder who won the Belmont in 2004 by upsetting Smarty Jones’ Triple Crown bid; and Penney Chenery, who owned Secretariat, are the three most famous ladies of racing, until now.

It wasn’t just that she won the test of champions, Antonucci is the first female to win a Triple Crown race and all total there have been 450 of them.

Arcangelo handed Forte, the 2-year-old champion, his first loss after five straight wins although hadn’t raced in 70 days because of foot bruise that caused him to be scratched the morning of the Kentucky Derby.

There is no clear-cut leader in the race to be this year’s 3-year-old champion, but Arcangelo made the leaderboard Saturday.

There are at least four major races left for 3-year-olds and they begin next month with the Grade I Haskell Stakes and the Grade II Jim Dandy a week later. In August, Saratoga will host the Grade I Travers Stakes.

Last but never least is the Breeders’ Cup on the first weekend in November, which is being run at Santa Anita this year.

Regardless of what happens on the track, Antonucci has earned an Eclipse Award for shattering a glass ceiling.