[Shalamar]

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Bill Shoemaker, who rode four Kentucky Derby winners and for more than 40 years was a commanding presence in thoroughbred racing, died Sunday. He was 72.

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Born 1931 in Fabens, Texas, Willie Shoemaker is he most successful jockey in history. He won his first race at 18. By the time he retired in 1990 he had won 8,833 races, including four Kentucky Derbies, five Belmont Stakes, and three Preakness Stakes. He was the first jockey to win over $100 million.

Fifty four years after the 2 1/2-pound pre-maturely born Shoemaker was placed in a shoebox and shoved into an oven to keep him alive, Willie Shoemaker nursed a 171 shot, a colt named Ferdinand, to victory in the 1986 Kentucky Derby.

It was one of sport's most memorable achievements. It would have been a historic feat, no matter who was in the saddle, but, coming as it did from the gifted hands of the world's greatest jockey at such an advanced athletic age, the feat took on miracle proportions. The sports world was awed and delighted.

The victory put a crown of gold on a 41year career that saw the pintsized Texan ride more horses, win more races, capture more stake purses and earn more prize money than any jockey who ever lived. Before retiring in 1990, Shoemaker rode 8,833 winners, 1,009 of them in stakes races and 250 with purses of $100,000 or more. He also won 10 national money titles and over $123 million in purses.

Willie was often called The Shoe by sports comentators, but those inside the world of horse racing called him Soft Hands. A high accolade for a barely 100 pound jockey that had to take command of a 30 plus mile a hour speed machine that weights ten times that.

He was paralysed from the neck down after a one car accident in 1991, but kept on training until his retirement in '97...

He will be sorely missed.

[RommieSG]

Probably the only jockey name that I would recognize. A sad loss indeed.

Rommie

[parisindy]

man i didn't know...thats so sad...he wasn't very old....my dad's older
was he sick?