Diane J. Nelson, a jockey who rode more than 1,000 winners during a 21-year racing career and who also worked as a model, died July 5. She was 51.

Her death was announced on the Moloney Family Funeral Homes of New York’s website. No other information was provided.

Ms. Nelson was the sixth female jockey in North America to reach 1,000 winners. She had 1,095 victories in 9,905 career races and purse earnings of more than $19 million, according to Equibase, a horse racing database.

She was one of horse racing’s elite female jockeys, although she never rode in any of the prestigious Triple Crown or Breeders’ Cup races. She rode regularly on the highly competitive New York circuit, where at times she was the lone woman.

“I’m realistic enough to know that I’m not going to get all the good mounts,” she told the New York Daily News in 2001. “There are 10 riders in here that are the top riders in the country. I would prefer to stay here and ride less and ride quality. I’ve gotten to ride some unbelievable horses in my career. That means more to me than winning a lot of races.”

Diane J. Nelson rides Acey Deucey to victory in The Dearly Precious stakes at Aqueduct Race Track in New York in 2005. (Adam Coglianese/Coglianese Photo via AP)

Ms. Nelson’s career began at New York’s Aqueduct Racetrack in 1986, and she rode her last race at the same track in 2007. She won eight graded stakes races in her career, including the Grade 1 Prioress Stakes with Acey Deucey in 2005 at Saratoga.

After debuting at Aqueduct, she moved to New Hampshire’s now-defunct Rockingham Park and later Suffolk Downs in Boston. Eventually, she went on to ride at tracks in New Jersey and New York, near her Long Island home.

“Being in New York is incredible,” she told the Daily News. “I’m not going to get rich, but there’s always a chance of riding a really nice horse and winning $100,000 stake races.”

Ms. Nelson said the lack of female riders who followed her was proof of how tough it was to survive in the sport.

At 5-foot-6, Ms. Nelson was considered tall for a jockey. After she was featured in television ads for the New York Racing Association, she landed a contract with the Ford Modeling Agency.

An earlier version of this story erroneously reported Diane Nelson’s age as 54. She was 51, according to a birthdate provided by The Jockeys’ Guild.

Diane J. Nelson in undated photo. (Coglianese Photo via AP)