Leading Thoroughbred Jockeys
Eddie Arcaro
Eddie Arcaro was born in Cincinnati in 1916. He ran his first race at the age of fifteen in Cleveland, but he had to wait almost a year for his first victory, which came at the Agua Caliente track in Tijuana. He soon won a contract to ride exclusively for Calumet Farms and then with the Greentree Stable of the Whitney Family. In 1946 he became an independent. Arcaro was the first and only jockey to have mounted two Triple Crown winners – Whirlaway in 1941 and Citation in 1948. Over a career of thirty years he ran 24,092 races, winning 4,779 of them and finishing in the money almost 12,000 times. He won the Kentucky Derby five times, the Preakness and the Belmont six times each. His success was earned with a riding style that seemed to have horse and rider always as one. It also came from the quality of his many mounts: Kelso – five times horse of the year, Bold Ruler, Native Dancer, Nashua, and of course, the two Triple Crown winners.
Jerry Bailey
Jerry Bailey was born in Dallas in 1957. He was drawn into racing when his father purchased several horses at claiming races. Bailey started racing quarter horses when he was only twelve. When he was seventeen, he turned to thoroughbreds and took his first mount in a professional race. He has been racing ever since and doing very well. Three times he has been selected as the winner of the Eclipse Award for jockey of the year. He won two Kentucky Derbys with Sea Hero in 1993 and Grindstone in 1996. He also rode nine winners in Breeder’s Cup races. In 1995, he was inducted into the racing Hall of Fame. One of his most notable claims to fame came as the jockey who rode Cigar in 1994 and 1995, as the horse was horse of the year both years. Bailey has been the president of the Jockeys’ Guild. He is still an active rider in 2001.
Steve Cauthen
Steve Cauthen became a sports “phenom” as a teenager. He was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 1977 at the age of seventeen. Steve began riding when he was only five. He began racing in 1976, immediately setting track records. At River Downs he won ninety-four races in his first fifty days of racing. From there he moved on to Arlington Park, Aqueduct, and Belmont. In his second year, records continued to fall as he won a record $6.1 million in purses. But the best came in 1978 as he guided Affirmed to the Triple Crown. He was the youngest jockey ever to win any Triple Crown race. In 1979, however, he experienced a losing streak and then accepted an offer to move to England, where he rode for the rest of his career. While fighting weight problems and also alcohol dependency, he was still able to win, becoming the number-one English rider in 1984, 1985, and 1987. A severe fall in 1988 kept him out of action for most of a season; nevertheless he returned to race for another year, after which he retired at age thirty. He moved back to his home state of Kentucky, where he raises horses.
Angel Cordero
Angel Cordero Jr. was born on 8 May 1942 in Santurce, Puerto Rico. In a career of thirty-one years he registered 7,057 wins in 38,646 starts and won purses totaling $164 million. He is fourth on the all-time list for numbers of winners. His wins included three at the Kentucky Derby, two at the Preakness, and one at the Belmont Stakes. He also had four winners in Breeder’s Cup races, with over $6 million in Breeder’s Cup earnings. Cordero was named the Eclipse Award winner two times, in 1982 and 1983. An inspirational figure, he once remarked “If a horse has four legs, and I’m riding it, I think I can win”.
But he could not win them all. In 1992 he retired after almost dying in a spill at Aqueduct track in New York. He then became an agent and trainer. Tragedy struck the Corderos again in January 2001, when Angel’s wife, Marjorie, was killed in a hit-and-run accident while jogging at night. Marjorie herself had been a very popular jockey, winning seventy-one races between 1982 and 1985.
Pat Day
Pat Day was born on 13 October 1953 in Brush, Colorado. He was drawn into racing after competing in high school and amateur rodeos. He thought he should turn to racing because of his slight build. At age nineteen he moved to California and started riding thoroughbreds. He won his first race in 1973. Since then he has had more than 7,000 wins, including the Kentucky Derby aboard Lil E. Tee in 1992, the Preakness five times, and the Belmont twice. He has also become the leading winner among Breeder’s Cup race jockeys with eleven wins. He has led the country in number of wins six different times. He won the Eclipse Award for being the leading jockey in 1984, 1986, 1987, and 1991. He was inducted into the racing Hall of Fame in 1991. He is ranked third in all-time winning among jockeys, and in 2001 he is still racing.
Bill Hartack
Bill Hartack was born in Blacklick Valley, Pennsylvania, in 1932. He took up riding in his late teenage years, and in a professional career from 1952 to 1974 he won 4,272 races, capturing purses of $26 million. His many winners included five mounts at the Kentucky Derby, a feat equaled only by Eddie Arcaro. Hartack was the leading winner in four different years and the leading money winner twice. He was known as a stickler for many details and an antagonist to the press and the general public. He was always at his best while steering his horse around the track and at his worst in the winner’s circle, refusing to give interviews and making caustic remarks to those around him. It was reported that he hated the media because they insisted on calling him “Willie”. After retirement in 1974 he worked as a steward at California tracks.
Julie Krone
Julie Krone was born in Benton Harbor, Michigan, in 1963. She is a Hall of Fame member with the most all-time wins of any female jockey – 3,454. She accomplished this record over an eighteen-year career from 1981 to 1999. Her most notable win was at the Belmont Stakes. She is the only woman to win a Triple Crown race. She also matched Angel Cordero’s and Ron Turcotte’s record of having five winners on the same day at Saratoga. Besides winning the Belmont, Krone rode winners in the Arlington Classic, Meadowlands Cup, Jersey Derby, Carter Handicap, and Delaware Handicap. Her career was marred by several accidents that eventually led to her retirement in 1999. The next year she was elected to the Hall of Fame.
Johnny Longden
Johnny Longden was born in England in 1907. He was raised in Canada. He became the leading jockey of his era. He was the first jockey to win 6,000 races; by the end of his riding career at the age of fifty-nine in 1966 he had won 6,032 races. This stood as a record until Willie Shoemaker surpassed the number in 1970. Longden’s purses totaled $24.6 million. His most notable achievement was riding Count Fleet to the Triple Crown in 1943. His career demonstrated his great spirit and love of horses. He broke both arms, both legs, both ankles, feet, and collarbones in racing accidents along with six ribs and several vertebrae. His arthritis slowed him down enough to cause his retirement as a jockey. But his maladies could not keep him away from the track. Three years after retiring as a rider he was a trainer, leading Majestic Prince to a Kentucky Derby win. He is the only person to have Kentucky Derby wins as both a jockey and a trainer. But there was more—he was also Majestic Prince’s exercise boy, groom, and stable-cleaner.
Laffit Pincay
Laffit Pincay is now the jockey with the most wins in history, having reached the plateau of 8,034 races in December 1999. He passed Willie Shoemaker’s accomplishments in a thirty-five-year period. Pincay was born in Panama City, Panama, on 29 December 1946. He started racing professionally at the Presidente Ramon racetrack in Panama at age seventeen. Two years later he moved to the United States. Success followed as he became the all-time leading jockey at Hollywood Park, Santa Anita, and Del Mar. One day he rode a record seven races at Santa Anita. He led the nation in jockey earnings seven times, and in five years he was given the Eclipse Award as the top jockey. He biggest win came at the 1984 Kentucky Derby. He also won the Belmont Stakes three times in a row and had seven wins in Breeder’s Cup races. He took several spills with his victories, showing great fortitude. He broke his collarbones eleven times and his ribs ten times; he had two spinal fractures, two broken thumbs, and a sprained ankle. He is still racing in 2001, riding in his twentieth Kentucky Derby; some suggest he is hoping to win 10,000 races.
Willie Shoemaker
Willie Shoemaker was born in 1931 in Fabens, Texas, moving to California as a child, where he started riding. At age seventeen he rode in his first professional race, and after a month he rode his first winner. By age twenty-two he had ridden a record 485 wins in a single year. He just kept winning and winning. On six occasions he won six races in a single day. In 1970 he passed Johnny Longden as the leading winner as he rode across the finish line in first place for the 6,033d time. By the end of his forty-one-year riding career in 1990 he had ridden 8,833 winners. In ten different years he was the leading money winner among jockeys. Overall he produced purse wins of $123 million for his mounts, being the first jockey to have wins of over $100 million. He won 1,009 stakes races. On four occasions he won the Kentucky Derby, the last time in 1986 at age fifty-four. He was the oldest jockey ever to win the race. He also had two wins in the Preakness and five wins in the Belmont stakes. After retiring, he became a trainer. His career success came at serious costs. He suffered broken legs and hips from falls during races. His most devastating injury came in a car accident in 1991, however, the year after he retired as a rider. The accident left him paralyzed below the neck. He continued an advisory role until 1997 as a trainer at Santa Anita, where he had had so many victories over his career.
Ron Turcotte
Ron Turcotte will always be known as the jockey who rode the great Secretariat to the Triple Crown in 1973. But he did more than just that outstanding feat. He also won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont aboard Riva Ridge in 1972, giving him five of six Triple Crown race victories in two years. He also rode Tom Rolfe to victory in the Preakness in 1965, and he rode Northern Dancer as a two-year-old. Turcotte was a French Canadian, born in Drummond, New Brunswick, on 22 June 1941. He was one of twelve children. He dropped out of school at the age of thirteen in order to work as a logger. In that work, he began to ride horses. As a result, he was drawn to racetracks and set his sights on becoming a jockey, but he had to work up to it. He moved to Toronto and its Woodbine track in 1959 and started cleaning stables, then walking horses, and then giving them work-out rides. In 1961 he became an apprentice jockey. Success followed each step of the way. In 1962 he had 180 wins, and in 1963 he was the leading Canadian jockey. In that year he also began racing in the United States at Laurel and Saratoga. His U.S. career received a big boost with his Preakness win on Tom Rolfe, and he was hired to ride for Meadows Stable, where he was given the reins of Secretariat when the horse was a two-year-old and won horse of the year honors. He retired in 1978 and was elected to the Hall of Fame the next year.