Jim Day

Last updated
Jim Day
Medal record
Equestrian
Representing Flag of Canada (Pantone).svg  Canada
Olympic Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 1968 Mexico City Team jumping
Pan American Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 1967 Winnipeg Individual jumping
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 1967 Winnipeg Team jumping

James E. Day (born July 7, 1946, in Thornhill, Ontario) was a Canadian Olympic equestrian show jumping champion [1] and Thoroughbred horse trainer.

Day first joined the Canadian Equestrian Team in 1964, and in 1966 tied the record high jump of 7 feet 1 inch at the National Horse Show in New York. Day took gold in individual jumping at the 1967 Pan American Games. [2] Day was named Canada's Horseman of the Year three years running in 1966 through 1968. [2] In 1968, he was a member of Canada's gold-medal equestrian team at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City. [1] At 22 years of age, Day was the youngest member of the show jumping team. [3] In the 1972 Olympics in Munich he finished 4th individually, and a team 6th. In the 1976 Summer Olympics he competed in both the show jumping and three-day eventing competitions, coming in 15th individually and 5th team in the show jumping, and not finishing the three-day eventing competition, although the Canadian team came in 6th. [1]

In 1971, Day took a job training race horses for Ernie Samuel, who had recently founded Sam-Son Farm. Day assisted in building the operation into a top Thoroughbred racing and breeding facility over the next 25 years. His training successes include two American Eclipse Awards, five Canadian Horse of the Year honors, two Queen's Plate awards, the Breeders' Cup Distaff and the Canadian Triple Crown in 1991. Day was voted Canada's top trainer on four occasions. [2]

In 1995, Day left the employ of Sam-Son Farm and continued training for others. In 1997 he became only the third trainer to ever win Arlington Park's Mid-America Triple. His horse Honor Glide won the three races made up of the Arlington Classic Stakes in late June, the American Derby in July, and the Secretariat Stakes in August.

Jim Day was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1968, the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 1971, and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2006. [2] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Todd (equestrian)</span> New Zealand horseman

Sir Mark James Todd is a New Zealand horseman noted for his accomplishments in the discipline of eventing, voted Rider of the 20th century by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlington Park</span> Horse race track in Arlington Heights, Illinois

Arlington Park was a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Called the Arlington Park Jockey Club during a period of its history, it was located adjacent to the Illinois Route 53 expressway and serviced by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.

James Edward "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons was a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.

Sam-Son Farm is a Thoroughbred horse racing stable with farms located in Milton, Ontario (Canada) and Ocala, Florida (U.S.). Established in the 1960s by Ernest L. "Ernie" Samuel, it began as a home for competition hunter/jumper horses. One Sam-Son horse won the 1967 Pan-American Games Individual Jumping Gold Medal and was a member of the 1968 Team Gold Medal for Canada at the Mexico Olympics.

James Cunningham Wofford was an American equestrian who competed in many international competitions in the sport of eventing. He was most known as a trainer of both horses and riders, and as a retired president of the AHSA and vice-president of the USET.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Attfield</span> Canadian horse trainer and owner

Roger L. Attfield is a Canadian thoroughbred horse trainer and owner and an inductee of both the Canadian and United States horseracing Halls of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael R. Matz</span> American racehorse trainer and equestrian

Michael R. Matz is an American race horse trainer and former Olympic equestrian team member who was inducted into the show jumping Hall of Fame. He lives in Coatesville, Pennsylvania. As a trainer, he has scored two wins in the Classics, the 2012 Belmont Stakes with Union Rags and the 2006 Kentucky Derby with Barbaro. Matz also was named "person of the week" by ABC News for his heroism in saving four children from the crash of United Airlines Flight 232 in 1989 on which he was a passenger.

John M. Veitch was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse trainer. The son of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame trainer Sylvester Veitch, he belonged to a family that has been in the horse-training business for three generations.

William I. "Bill" Mott is an American horse trainer, most notable for his work with Cigar. Mott earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer in 1995 and 1996. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1998 at the age of 45, becoming the youngest thoroughbred trainer ever inducted. Mott started training thoroughbreds at age 15 and won the South Dakota Futurity with Kosmic Tour before he was out of high school. He worked his way up the ranks by becoming first an exercise rider, then an assistant trainer for Hall of Fame Trainer Jack Van Berg. In 1976, Mott, trainer Frank Brothers, and a stable crew guided Van Berg's horses through the wins at Sportsman's, Hawthorne and Arlington Park race tracks in Chicago. They were so successful that Van Berg was named leading trainer at Arlington Park and leading trainer in the Nation with 496 wins in 1976, a record that stood until Steve Asmussen broke it in 2003 with 555 wins. Asmussen broke his own record in 2008 and 2009. Mott worked as an assistant trainer for Van Berg for three years before striking out on his own in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bull Lea</span> American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Bull Lea was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who is best known as the foundation sire responsible for making Calumet Farm one of the most successful racing stables in American history. In their article on Calumet Farm, the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky wrote that Bull Lea was "one of the greatest sires in Thoroughbred breeding history."

John Milton Gaver Sr. was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne D. Wright</span>

Wayne Danforth Wright was an American Hall of Fame and National Champion Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won all three of the Triple Crown races in different years.

Peaks and Valleys (1992–2012) was a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse.

Regal Classic was a Canadian Thoroughbred racehorse. In 1987, he earned the Sovereign Award for Champion 2-Year-Old Colt after winning the Summer Stakes, Cup and Saucer, Grey Stakes and Coronation Futurity, plus finishing second in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile. At age three, he started his campaign on the American Triple Crown trail, where he finished fifth in the Kentucky Derby and sixth in the Preakness. He then returned to Canada where he finished second in the Queen's Plate and won the Prince of Wales, the second leg of the Canadian Triple Crown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Gayford</span> Canadian equestrian

Thomas Franklin "Tom" Gayford is a retired Canadian equestrian. He was educated at the University of Toronto Schools. He competed at the 1952 and 1960 Olympics in the individual and team three-day events, but failed to finish. At the 1968 Olympics he won a gold medal in show jumping with the Canadian team.

Classy 'n Smart was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. Bred and raced by Sam-Son Farm, she won five of nine career starts, including two legs of what would later be known as the Canadian Triple Tiara. Although she was voted the 1984 Canadian Champion 3-Year-Old Filly, her primary legacy is as a champion broodmare.

Honor Glide is an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He won a number of important races between 1997 and 2001 and was particularly effective on turf courses.

Grey Classic (1983–1989) was a Canadian Thoroughbred Champion racehorse.

Rodney Jenkins is a former show jumping rider and member of the United States Equestrian Team (USET), inducted into the United States Show Jumping Hall of Fame. He rode hunters and jumpers competitively from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, winning a record 70 Grand Prix-level competitions. After retiring from the show ring, he became a race horse trainer.

Neal Shapiro is an American equestrian and was a silver medalist in team jumping and Bronze medalist in individual jumping in the 1972 Munich Olympics, where he became the first American Equestrian jumper to win two medals and only the third U.S. rider to win an individual medal in an Olympic show jumping event. In 1967, he began driving and training harness horses in trotting and pacing competitions, a career he continued after retiring from competitive show jumping in 1976. He purchased a stable, Hayfever Farm in 1976, and in addition to acting as a trainer, he began a career as a standardbred harness horse owner. In 2007, he moved his stables, Hayfever Farm, to Robinswood, New Jersey. He continued to train equestrians and horses, and after ending his training career, returned to riding show horses on a limited basis in 1998. He was jumping coach for the US Equestrian Team at the Maccabiah Games in 2013.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jim Day Archived 2012-10-24 at the Wayback Machine , Sports Reference LLC, retrieved January 27, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Honored Members - James Day [ permanent dead link ], Canadian Sports Hall of Fame, retrieved January 27, 2010.
  3. Canada Equestrianism at the 1968 Ciudad de México Summer Games Archived 2009-09-10 at the Wayback Machine , Sports Reference LLC, retrieved January 27, 2010.
  4. "James E. (Jim) Day". Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. 2006-01-01. Retrieved 2021-11-15.