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Bill Shoemaker, Hall of Fame jockey who won 8,833 races including four Kentucky Derbys, died at age 72 in 2003
Shoemaker's career as a jockey began in his teenage years, with his first professional ride on March 19, 1949. The first of his eventual 8,833 career victories came a month later, on April 20, aboard Shafter V, at Golden Gate Fields in Albany, California. In 1951, he won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.
At the age of 19, he was making so much money (as much as $2,500 each week) the Los Angeles Superior Court appointed attorney Horace Hahn as his guardian, with the consent of his parents.
Thirty years later, he won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in the United States.
Shoemaker won eleven Triple Crownraces during his career, spanning four different decades, but the Crown itself eluded him. The breakdown of these wins is as follows:
Two of Shoemaker's most noted rides were in the Kentucky Derby. He lost the 1957 Kentucky Derby aboard Gallant Man, when he stood up in the stirrups too soon, having misjudged the finish line, where Gallant Man finished second to Iron Liege, ridden by Bill Hartack. At the 1986 Kentucky Derby, Shoemaker became the oldest jockey ever to win the race (at age 54) aboard the 18-1 outsider Ferdinand. The following year, he rode Ferdinand to a victory over Alysheba in the Breeders' Cup Classic; Ferdinand later captured Horse of the Year honors.
Shoemaker rode the popular Californiahorse Silky Sullivan, about which he is quoted as saying: "You just had to let him run his race ... and if he decided to win it, you'd better hold on because you'd be moving faster than a train."
When Shoemaker earned his 6,033rd victory in September 1970, he broke jockey Johnny Longden's record. In 1999, Shoemaker's own record of 8,833 career victories was broken by Panamanian-born Laffit Pincay Jr.; in 2006 Russell Baze tied Pincay's record.
Win number 8,833, Shoemaker's last, came at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Florida, on January 20, 1990, aboard Beau Genius. Two weeks later, on February 3, Shoemaker rode his last race on Patchy Groundfog, at Santa Anita Parkin Arcadia, California. He finished fourth, in front of a record crowd, to Eddie Delahoussaye, on Exemplary Leader. All told, Bill Shoemaker rode in a record 40,350 races. In 1990, he was voted the Mike Venezia Memorial Award for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship".
The Marlboro Cup of 1976 at Belmont Park proved to be maybe his greatest racing achievement, and it was upon the mighty Forego. Forego's drive started from eighth position out of eleven horses on the backstretch. It culminated with a tremendous charge through the muddy middle-of-the-track stretch run, leading to a victory by a nose over the dead-game Honest Pleasure. Shoemaker was quoted as saying that Forego was the best horse he had ever ridden.
Shoemaker rode three-time champion Spectacular Bid in the horse's final 13 races from 1979 to 1980 losing only once during that stretch. This included Spectacular Bid's perfect nine for nine 1980 season, culminating in a walkover in the Woodward Stakes. In his autobiography Shoemaker (1988) he called Spectacular Bid the greatest horse he rode in his storied career.
Louise Mason was an artist that specialized in thoroughbred horse portraits. Her painting are truly unique to the time period and represent some of the top horse athletes and jockeys. Several of her painting are on display at California Racecourses, including Hollywood Park, Santa Anita, Los Alamos and Del Mar. In association with turfwriter and handicapper Ernie Mason, she was also known as a handicapper and columnist as “Lucky Louise”. She was honored in the 1960’s edition of “Who’s Who in Horsedom”. Ernie Mason a top handicapper at Santa Anita Race Track for over 23 years.