Remember Those High Flying Great Jockeys
©
Greg Melikov
Dec 24, 2003
Without a doubt, 2003 was the Year of the Jockey. I'm amazed these athletes well into their 40s and even 50s can perform so efficiently. It's a tribute to their skills.
So I'm paying homage to some of the greats, all in the Hall of Fame. First is Willie Shoemaker: a native Texan who won his first race at 18 and his last Kentucky Derby at 54.
By the time the first jockey to win $100 million retired, he crossed the finish line a record 8,833 times in 41 years and captured three Preakness Stakes, four Kentucky Derbies and five Belmont Stakes.
Last fall, at 72, he died in his sleep after spending his final dozen years paralyzed from the neck down after a car accident.
The Shoe's victory record was eclipsed by Laffit Pincay Jr.,who won 9,530 races before retiring at 56 in the spring after fracturing his spine and vertebra in a March 1 spill at Santa Anita.
Pincay passed Shoemaker's record on Dec. 10, 1999. He rode 446 winners at Presidente Remon in Panama before arriving in this country in 1966 when he won on his first U.S. mount on July 1 at Arlington Park.
He captured 44 riding titles and 13 races worth $1 million during his 39-year career. He won seven Breeders' Cup events.
Two jockeys still going strong are Pat Day and Jerry Bailey. Day holds the all-time earnings record - more than $275 million - at 50. Bailey, 46, broke his single-season earnings record in November that soared to $23,354,960 as of Dec. 23. He also recorded the most stakes victories in a year with a month to go - 70.
There's another outstanding rider who deserves mentioning. The Shoe had this to say about The Master: "He was terrific. I think he beat me more than I beat him."
The Master was George Edward Arcaro. I first saw him ride in 1948 at old Arlington Park. Arcaro was aboard Triple Crown winner Citation in the Stars and Stripes Handicap.
Citation was 3. I was 13. Arcaro was 32.
Citation whipped 20 or 21 older horses, including his classy stablemate Armed. It was one of 19 races my favorite thoroughbred took that championship season. He only lost once and, unfortunately, it was Arcaro's debut on the son of Bull Lea.
"Al Snider was going to ride for us," trainer Jimmy Jones said decades ago. "He went down to Florida to fish in the Keys. A storm came up and drowned him. (Snider's body was never found.) I called Eddie Arcaro. I said to him, 'How would you like to get on the (Kentucky) Derby winner?"
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