Douglas Dodson

Douglas Dodson
Douglas Dodson
Occupation	Jockey / Trainer
Born	December 21, 1921; Pickardville, Alberta,; Canada
Died	February 4, 1982 (aged 60); Miami, Florida,; United States
Resting place	Vista Memorial Gardens,; Miami Lakes, Florida
Career wins	Not found
Major racing wins
	Longacres Mile (1939); Santa Margarita Handicap (1940); Laurel Futurity (1944, 1947, 1954); Mardi Gras Handicap (1944); Pimlico Special (1944, 1945); Arlington Classic (1945); Ben Ali Stakes (1945, 1947, 1951, 1958); Cowdin Stakes (1945); Jockey Club Gold Cup (1945); Lawrence Realization Stakes (1945); Derby Trial Stakes (1945, 1947, 1951); Clark Handicap (1946, 1951); Philadelphia Handicap (1946); Suburban Handicap (1946); Walden Stakes (1946); Washington Park Handicap (1946, 1947); Whirlaway Handicap (1946, 1947); Widener Handicap (1946, 1947, 1951); American Derby (1947); Arlington Handicap (1947, 1957); Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes (1947); Blue Grass Stakes (1947, 1950); Flamingo Stakes (1947); Gulfstream Park Handicap (1947); Lincoln Handicap (1947); Marguerite Stakes (1947); Stars and Stripes Turf Handicap (1947); Widener Handicap (1947); Withers Stakes (1947, 1948); Beldame Stakes (1948); Jamaica Handicap (1948); Royal Palm Handicap (1948, 1949); Wood Memorial Stakes (1948); Acorn Stakes (1949); Canadian Championship Stakes (1949); Fleetwing Handicap (1949); Gazelle Handicap (1949); Prioress Stakes (1949); Bahamas Stakes (1950, 1952); Discovery Handicap (1950); Excelsior Handicap (1950); Fall Highweight Handicap (1950); Phoenix Handicap (1950, 1953); Sysonby Handicap (1950); Lafayette Stakes (1951, 1952); Arlington-Washington Futurity Stakes (1952); Ashland Stakes (1953); Modesty Handicap (1954); Remsen Stakes (1954); Breeders' Futurity (1955); Louisiana Derby (1955); Youthful Stakes (1955) American Classic Race wins:; Preakness Stakes (1947)Contents Early life ; Riding career ; Achievements ; Retirement ; References ; As a trainer:; Miss Florida Handicap (1963); Appleton Handicap (1965); Fair Grounds Oaks (1975); Violet Handicap (1978); Youthful Stakes (1979)
Racing awards
	Leading jockey at Arlington Park (1945, 1946); United States Champion Jockey by earnings (1947)
Significant horses
	Arise, Armed, Bewitch, Citation, Faultless,; Hill Prince, Pot O'Luck, Twilight Tear,; Vulcan's Forge

Last updated December 11, 2023

Douglas Allan Dodson (December 21, 1921 - February, 1982) was a Champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.

Early life

Douglas Dodson was born in Pickardville, Alberta, Canada, the son of James Floyd and Emma Dodson. His family moved to a ranch in Elk River, Idaho when he was still a child and as a small boy he learned to ride horses and rope steers. His parents moved to Burns, Oregon where at age fifteen he was working as a shoeshine boy when trainer Harry Walters told the diminutive boy shining his shoes about racing Thoroughbreds. Deciding that he wanted to try his luck as a jockey, Dodson soon traveled to the Longacres Racetrack in Renton, Washington. There he was hired by trainer Walter Neilsen and, while still an apprentice jockey in 1939, won the Pacific Northwest's most prestigious race, the Longacres Mile. At age seventeen, he was the youngest jockey to ever win the Longacres Mile.

Riding career

In 1940, the then nineteen-year-old Dodson was signed by Warren Wright, Sr. to join Eddie Arcaro as a rider for his Calumet Farm stable of Lexington, Kentucky. In September of the previous year, Wright had hired Ben Jones as head trainer. The result saw Calumet Farm record the most successful decade of any racing stable in the history of American Thoroughbred racing. Between 1945 and 1961, Douglas Dodson made twelve appearances in the Kentucky Derby without winning. His best result came with his first ride in 1945 aboard Pot O'Luck when he ran second.^[1] Later that year he rode Pot O' Luck to victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Dodson finished third in the Derby on three other occasions. He had much better luck in the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown, the Preakness Stakes. After finishing second by a neck in 1946 aboard Maine Chance Farm's Lord Boswell, he won the race in 1947 aboard Faultless defeating, among others Phalanx, later to be voted outstanding three-year-old male horse that year.^[2]^[3] The following year he earned another second-place result with Vulcan's Forge.^[4] Dodson made his fourth and last Preakness start in 1956, earning third place aboard No Regrets. His association with Calumet came to a bitter end in 1948 when Dodson quit the racing stable after being denied a mount on Citation, soon to win the Triple Crown, in favor of the colt's regular rider, fellow Canadian Albert Snider.

Achievements

Among Douglas Dodson's other accomplishments in racing, he was the Leading jockey at Arlington Park in 1945 and 1946. In 1949, he made a return visit to his native Canada to ride the future Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame colt Arise to a win in the Canadian Championship Stakes.^[5] In 1951 Dodson became the first jockey to win three editions of the then richest race in Florida, the Widener Handicap at Hialeah Park.^[6] Dodson had his greatest success in 1946 and 1947 with the Calumet colt, Armed. Voted the U.S. Champion Older Male Horse both years, on September 27, 1947, Armed and Dodson defeated U.S. Triple Crown champion Assault in a $100,000 winner take all match race at Belmont Park.^[7] That year, Armed received the highest honor in horse racing when he was voted Horse of the Year ^[3] and in 1963 would be inducted in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. For Dodson, he won a National riding title in 1947 when he led all American jockeys in total purses won.

Retirement

Dodson retired from riding at the beginning of the 1960s but remained in the horse racing industry as a trainer. In 1965 he was the top trainer at Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida.

Douglas Dodson was living in Hollywood, Florida at the time of his death in 1982.

Related Research Articles

Citation was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the eighth winner of the American Triple Crown. He won 16 consecutive stakes races and was the first horse in history to win US$1 million.

Assault was a champion American Thoroughbred racehorse who is the seventh winner of the American Triple Crown and the only Texas-bred winner of the Triple Crown.

Jean Cruguet is a retired French-American thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.

Braulio Baeza is an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey and one of the master Thoroughbred jockeys of our time. In 1963, he was the first Latin American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. Baeza began his racing career in 1955 in Panama at Hipodromo Juan Franco, and in March 1960, was invited to Miami, Florida to ride under contract for Owner/Trainer, Fred Hooper. He rode his first race in the US in the first race on Keeneland's opening day, 1960, and won it on Foolish Youth.

Armed was an American Thoroughbred gelding race horse who was the American Horse of the Year in 1947 and Champion Older Male Horse in both 1946 and 1947. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1963.

Iron Liege was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1957 Kentucky Derby.

Alfred Masson Robertson was a Hall of Fame jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Snider</span> American horse racing jockey

Albert Snider was a jockey in Thoroughbred racing who had success in his native Canada as well as the United States. He was born in Calgary, Alberta, and got his first win on September 1, 1938, at Stamford Park racetrack in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Peter D. Anderson was an American jockey and Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. He began his riding career in the latter part of the late 1940s and was the leading apprentice jockey in New York in 1948. Like many of his compatriots, Anderson struggled throughout his career to maintain his weight.

Steve Brooks was an American National Champion and Hall of Fame jockey. The son of a horse dealer, he was born in McCook, Nebraska. He began riding horses as a boy of ten and at age sixteen in 1938 won his first race at an accredited race track.

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Reginald "Reggie" Cornell was a Thoroughbred horse racing trainer who competed in his native Canada before working for many years in the United States.

Mario Gutierrez is a Mexican Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the 2012 Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes aboard I'll Have Another, a colt owned by Windsor, Ontario, native J. Paul Reddam and his wife, Zillah. He also won the 2016 Kentucky Derby aboard Nyquist, also owned by Reddam and trained by Doug O'Neill.

The 1947 Preakness Stakes was the 57th running of the $100,000 added Preakness Stakes, a horse race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds. The second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series took place on May 10, 1947 and was run seven days after the 1947 Kentucky Derby. Ridden by Douglas Dodson, who was praised by the Daily Racing Form for a smart ride, Faultless won the mile and three sixteenths race by one and a quarter lengths over runner-up On Trust with the betting favorite Phalanx in third. Jet Pilot, winner of the Kentucky Derby, finished fourth. The race was run on a track rated fast in a final time of 1:59 flat.

Roy J. Waldron was a batboy for the St. Louis Browns before he turned to training Thoroughbred racehorses. He is best known for winning the 1940 Kentucky Derby with Gallahadion, a colt he race conditioned for Ethel V. Mars of chocolate bar fame.

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References

↑ "1945". Kentuckyderby.com. Retrieved 2016-06-25.
↑ "Preakness Winners (1873-2008)". Preakness.com. 2009-04-21. Archived from the original on 2009-04-21. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
1 2 The Bloodhorse.com Champion's history charts Archived September 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
↑ "Citation Romps in Preakness". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1948-05-17. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
↑ "Woodbine Media Guide". Woodbine Entertainment Group. 2018-01-01. Retrieved 2020-10-05.
↑ "Sun Glow, 7-2, Wins Widener Handicap". New York Times, Section Sports, page 139. 1951-02-25. Retrieved 2021-06-01.
↑ "51,573 Watch Race; Armed 6-Length Victor, Leading From Start of $100,000 Special". New York Times, Section Sports, page 1. 1947-09-28. Retrieved 2021-06-01.

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[1] "1945". Kentuckyderby.com. Retrieved 2016-06-25.

[2] "Preakness Winners (1873-2008)". Preakness.com. 2009-04-21. Archived from the original on 2009-04-21. Retrieved 2021-06-01.

[DD1-3] 1 2 The Bloodhorse.com Champion's history charts Archived September 4, 2012, at the Wayback Machine

[4] "Citation Romps in Preakness". Daily Racing Form at University of Kentucky Archives. 1948-05-17. Retrieved 2021-06-01.

[5] "Woodbine Media Guide". Woodbine Entertainment Group. 2018-01-01. Retrieved 2020-10-05.

[6] "Sun Glow, 7-2, Wins Widener Handicap". New York Times, Section Sports, page 139. 1951-02-25. Retrieved 2021-06-01.

[7] "51,573 Watch Race; Armed 6-Length Victor, Leading From Start of $100,000 Special". New York Times, Section Sports, page 1. 1947-09-28. Retrieved 2021-06-01.

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