Mickey Walls

Last updated
Mickey Walls
Occupation Jockey
BornJune 1, 1974
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Career wins1,453
Major racing wins
Grey Breeders' Cup Stakes (1991, 2001)
Glorious Song Stakes (1991)
Highlander Stakes (1991, 1999)
Plate Trial Stakes (1991)
Princess Elizabeth Stakes (1991, 1993, 1997)
Seaway Stakes (1991, 1999)
Swynford Stakes (1991)
Vigil Stakes (1991, 1997)
Jacques Cartier Stakes (1992, 1997, 1998)
Lady Angela Stakes (1992, 1996, 1999, 2000)
Miss Woodford Stakes (1992)
La Prevoyante Stakes (1993, 1998)
Col. R. S. McLaughlin Handicap
(1993, 1996, 2000)
San Pasqual Handicap (1993)
Star Shoot Stakes (1994)
Tampa Bay Derby (1994)
Ben Ali Stakes (1995)
Autumn Stakes (1996, 1998, 1999)
Chicago Breeders' Cup Handicap (1996)
Coronation Futurity Stakes (1996)
Dominion Day Stakes (1996, 1998)
King Edward Stakes (1996, 1998)
Martha Washington Stakes (1996)
Summer Stakes (1996)
Bison City Stakes (1997, 2002)
Connaught Cup Stakes (1997)
Display Stakes (1997)
Eclipse Stakes (1997, 2000)
Hendrie Stakes (1997)
Nassau Stakes (1997)
Overskate Stakes (1997)
Shady Well Stakes (1997)
Victoriana Stakes (1997)
Whimsical Stakes (1997)
Wonder Where Stakes (1997)
Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy Stakes (1999)
Royal North Stakes (1999)
Woodbine Oaks (1999)
Bessarabian Stakes (2000)
Durham Cup Stakes (2000)
Play The King Stakes (2000)
Natalma Stakes (2001)
Alywow Stakes (2002)

Canadian Classic Race wins:
Breeders' Stakes (1996)
Prince of Wales Stakes (1996)
Queen's Plate (1999)

Contents

Racing awards
Canadian Champion Apprentice Jockey
(1990, 1991)
United States Champion Apprentice Jockey (1991)
Canadian Champion Jockey (1991)
Leading jockey at Greenwood Raceway
(1990, 1991)
Leading jockey at Woodbine Racetrack
(1991, 1993)
Avelino Gomez Memorial Award
(2013)
Honours
British Columbia Thoroughbred Hall of Fame (2008)
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (2019)
Significant horses
Chief Bearhart, Kiridashi, Prospective Dolly, Stephanotis, Woodcarver

Mickey K. Walls (born June 1, 1974 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a retired Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who was a Champion in both the United States and Canada.

Early life

Mickey Walls grew up in Langley, British Columbia, the son of Thoroughbred racehorse trainer, Joe Walls.

Riding career

He began riding professionally in 1990 at age sixteen, first competing at Exhibition Park in Vancouver. Immediately successful, in the fall he went east to Toronto to ride at Woodbine Racetrack and then at Greenwood Raceway where he was the leading jockey at the Autumn Meet. For his performances, Walls was voted the Sovereign Award as the 1990 Canadian Champion Apprentice Jockey. [1]

Still an apprentice in Canada, in 1991 Mickey Walls had a spectacular year, setting a Canadian record for most races won by an apprentice jockey with 231, and winning more races and garnering more purse money at Woodbine Racetrack than any jockey in history. At the Greenwood Raceway Spring Meet he won a second riding title. [2] His 1991 efforts saw him become the first apprentice jockey to be voted the Sovereign Award and the United States' Eclipse Award in the same year. [3] In addition, he was voted the overall Canadian Champion Jockey.

As a result of a serious injury, 1992 proved to be a difficult year for Mickey Walls. Nevertheless, he was the leading jockey at the Greenwood Spring Meet before breaking a leg in a racing accident that kept him out of racing for the season. In 1993, he was again back in form and was the leading jockey at Woodbine Racetrack for a second time. In 1994 and 1995, Walls competed in the United States at various tracks including Arlington Park, Churchill Downs, Fair Grounds Race Course, Keeneland, and Santa Anita Park. He returned to race in Canada in 1996 where he won the final two legs of the Canadian Triple Crown series, capturing the Prince of Wales Stakes aboard Stephanotis then the Breeders' Stakes on Canada's top turf runner and future Hall of Fame inductee, Chief Bearhart. Among his other racing accomplishments, in 1999 Mickey Walls rode Woodcarver to victory in the Queen's Plate, Canada's most prestigious race and the first leg of the Triple Crown series.

Retirement

After years of struggling against weight gain, in 2002 Walls retired but in 2003 attempted a short-lived comeback at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai before retiring permanently.

Honors

In 2008, Mickey Walls was inducted in the British Columbia Thoroughbred Hall of Fame [4] and was a nominee for the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2009. [5] In June 2013, he won the Avelino Gomez Memorial Award for significant contributions to the sport of thoroughbred horse racing. [6] Walls was later named into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2019. [7]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandy Hawley</span> Canadian jockey

Desmond Sandford "Sandy" Hawley, is a Canadian Hall of Fame jockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stewart Elliott</span> American thoroughbred jockey

Stewart "Stewie" Elliott is an American thoroughbred jockey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Avelino Gomez</span> Cuban jockey

Avelino Gomez was a Cuban-born Hall of Fame jockey in American and Canadian thoroughbred horse racing.

The Avelino Gomez Memorial Award is a Canadian thoroughbred horse racing honour given annually to a jockey who is Canadian-born, Canadian-raised, or a regular in the country for more than five years, who has made significant contributions to the sport. The honour is named for the late Cuban-born Canadian and American Hall of Fame jockey Avelino Gomez who died in 1980 of complications from injuries sustained in a racing accident.

Todd Kabel was a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. A native of McCreary, Manitoba, he began his career as a jockey at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in 1987 started competing at tracks in Ontario, moving to Toronto permanently in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norcliffe</span> Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Norcliffe (1973–1984) was a Canadian Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. He was sired by U.S. Hall of Fame Champion Buckpasser out of the mare Drama School by Northern Dancer.

Patrick Husbands is a Barbadian jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. The son of a jockey, he began riding as a young boy, turning professional in his home country where he rode successfully until emigrating to Toronto, Ontario in 1994. In 1990 he became the youngest jockey to win the prestigious Barbados Gold Cup at just 16 years, 9 months on his mount Vardar.

Richard Anthony Dos Ramos is a Canadian jockey in thoroughbred horse racing. He grew up in Malton, a neighbourhood in Mississauga, Ontario, where his family emigrated when he was young. He began his career in horse racing in 1981, winning the Sovereign Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey that year and again in 1982.

Larry Attard is a retired Hall of Fame Champion jockey and current horse trainer in Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing.

The Autumn Stakes is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. Run in mid November, it is open to horses aged three and older. It was raced on dirt until 2006 when the track's owners installed the new synthetic Polytrack surface. For 2008, the Canadian Graded Stakes Committee upgraded the Autumn Stakes to Grade II status.

James S. "Jim" McAleney is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing jockey.

Robert Charles Landry is a Canadian Champion jockey in thoroughbred horse racing.

Lloyd Duffy is a Canadian retired Champion jockey in Thoroughbred flat horse racing who uniquely is also a licensed driver of harness racing horses.

The Princess Elizabeth Stakes is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. Run in mid October, the stakes race currently offers a purse of CAN$250,000, the richest race of the year for Canadian-foaled two-year-old fillies. It is contested at a distance of 1+1⁄16 miles on Tapeta synthetic dirt.

The Canadian Triple Crown is a series of three Thoroughbred horse races run annually in Canada which is open to three-year-old horses foaled in Canada. Established in 1959, the series is unique in that it shares the same distances as its American counterpart but is contested on three different track surfaces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurico Rosa da Silva</span> Brazilian jockey

Eurico Rosa da Silva is a retired Thoroughbred racing jockey who raced for five years in his native Brazil and another four years in Macau before coming to Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario. While based in Canada, he also won races in the United States.

Chris Loseth is a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. At age six, Loseth's family moved to Fort Nelson, British Columbia then in the year before he graduated high school they resettled in Grand Forks. As a boy he was inspired by the success of the great Alberta jockey, Johnny Longden. After finishing high school, in 1974 Loseth began an apprenticeship at Hastings Racecourse in Vancouver, British Columbia that saw him go on to compete in more than 26,000 races. He retired on June 12, 2005 having won more races and stakes events than any other jockey in the one hundred and sixteen year history of Hastings Racecourse.

Jack M. Lauzon is a Canadian retired Thoroughbred horse racing jockey whom The Blood-Horse magazine called "one of the most respected riders in Canada."

Jean (John) B. LeBlanc is a Canadian retired jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. He competed at many of the top racetracks in the United States but for most of his career was based in Ontario where he was commonly known as John, the English language translation for his name.

The Lady Angela Stakes is a thoroughbred horse race run annually during the third week of May at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada. An Ontario Sire Stakes, it is a restricted race for three-year-old fillies contested over a distance of seven furlongs on Polytrack synthetic dirt.

References

  1. ↑ "Welcome to the Jockey Club of Canada". Archived from the original on 2009-04-24. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.woodbineentertainment.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2004. Retrieved 12 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "Welcome to the Jockey Club of Canada". Archived from the original on 2009-04-24. Retrieved 2010-02-04.
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-08-28. Retrieved 2010-01-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ↑ "CTHS (Ontario Division) - Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame Announces 2009 Nominations". www.cthsont.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-08.
  6. ↑ "Mickey Walls to Receive 2013 Avelino Gomez Memorial Award". 29 May 2013.
  7. ↑ "Mickey Walls". Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.