James Forman "Tod" Sloan | |
---|---|
Occupation | Jockey |
Born | August 10, 1874 Bunker Hill, Indiana, United States |
Died | December 21, 1933 (age 59) Los Angeles, California, United States |
Major racing wins | |
Hudson Stakes (1893, 1898) Flying Handicap (1896) Foam Stakes (1896, 1898) Manhattan Handicap (1896) Test Handicap (1896) Zephyr Stakes (1896, 1898) Belles Stakes (1897) Eclipse Stakes (1897, 1898) Flatbush Stakes (1897, 1900) Laureate Stakes (1897, 1898) Ocean Handicap (1897) Russet Stakes (1897, 1898) Double Event Stakes (part 1) (1898) Double Event Stakes (part 2) (1898) Fall Handicap (1898) Fashion Stakes (1898) Great American Stakes (1898) Great Eastern Handicap (1898) Great Trial Stakes (1898) Lawrence Realization Stakes (1898) National Stallion Stakes (1898) Pansy Stakes (1898) Spring Stakes (1898) International race wins: Contents | |
Honours | |
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1955) | |
Significant horses | |
Hamburg, Clifford, Sibola, Belmar, Merman, |
James Forman "Tod" Sloan (August 10, 1874 - December 21, 1933) was an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955.
James Forman Sloan was born in Bunker Hill, Indiana, near Kokomo, the son of a Union Army soldier. He was a tiny and frail child, and after his mother died when he was five, his father sent him to live with a nearby family. He was still a young boy when he struck out on his own, taking jobs in the nearby gas and oil fields. For a time he ended up working at a horse racing stable in St. Louis, but later in Kansas City was employed by a thoroughbred horse trainer who encouraged him to take advantage of his diminutive stature and become a jockey.
By 1886, Sloan was working at Latonia Race Track in Covington, Kentucky, where trainer Sam Hildreth gave him the opportunity to ride one of his horses. Sloan's performance was not impressive, and his horse finished in the back of the pack. However, he persisted and a few years later was riding at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, and on March 6, 1889, scored his first win there.
In 1893, Sloan went to race in northern California where he enjoyed considerable success. In 1896 he moved to New York City after being hired by "Pittsburgh Phil", where within a short time he was the dominant rider in the thoroughbred racing circuit on the East Coast. Despite his many career victories, Sloan said that Hamburg (1895–1915) was the only great horse he ever rode. Sloan took over as jockey for Hamburg when the horse's career was near its end after the three-year-old had been soundly defeated in the Belmont Stakes. Ridden by Sloan, the horse won the Lawrence Realization, easily defeating Kentucky Derby winner Plaudit, then scored the most impressive win of his career in the 2¼-mile American Brighton Cup.
Such were Sloan's abilities that in 1896 he won nearly 30% of all his races, increased it to 37% in 1897, and upped it to an astonishing 46% in 1898.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(May 2023) |
Charles F. Dwyer, a close friend and son of prominent racehorse owner Mike Dwyer, was part of a syndicate that backed Sloan's mounts when he rode in England. [1] Racing there on September 30, 1898, Sloan rode five consecutive winners at the Newmarket Racecourse. It was Sloan who popularized the forward seat style of riding, or the "monkey crouch" as the British called it, when he began riding there in 1897. Initially mocked, his style revolutionized the sport worldwide. (Although he did not invent it. The "American Seat" of short stirrups and crouching over the horse's neck and withers was used in the colonies as far back as the quarter mile dashes along tracks cut in the wilderness as well as being the preferred riding style of the Native Americans. Not only that, but two years before Sloan rode in England, the African American jockey, Willie Simms had ridden exactly that way taking England's Crawfurd Plate (sic) at Newmarket against England's finest bolt-upright riders. [2] )
Returning to England the following year he won a number of important races including the 1899 1,000 Guineas aboard Sibola and in 1900 the Ascot Gold Cup riding Merman for owner, Lily Langtry. The prestigious Derby was a race that Sloan always felt he would have won, had it not been for a terrible tragedy. In the 1899 race, his horse Holocauste took the early lead, and rounding Tattenham Corner Holocauste and Flying Fox, winner of the 2,000 Guineas, were racing head-to-head in front of the rest of the field. At that point in the race Sloan said he was still holding back on the horse, in preparation for a full-out drive down the straight, when his horse stopped abruptly and collapsed to the ground with a shattered pastern. Holocauste was put down while Flying Fox went on to win the race. Later that year Flying Fox won the St. Leger to become the 1899 Triple Crown Champion.
In 1900, Edward, Prince of Wales offered Sloan the job to ride for his stable in the 1901 racing season. Sloan's success on the racetrack, combined with a flamboyant lifestyle filled with beautiful women, made him one of the first to become a major international celebrity in the sport. He hung out with the likes of Diamond Jim Brady and traveled with a personal valet and a trunk full of clothes.
His reputation was such that he was the "Yankee Doodle" in the George M. Cohan Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones and the basis for Ernest Hemingway's short story My Old Man . Although Sloan's racing career was spectacular, it was relatively short, ending by 1901 under a cloud of suspicion that he had been betting on races in which he had competed. Advised by the British Jockey Club that they would not renew his license, he never rode for the Prince of Wales. The ban in Britain was maintained by American racing authorities, and Sloan's jockey career came to an end.
This section needs additional citations for verification .(May 2023) |
After Sloan left racing, Oscar Hammerstein arranged for him to star in a one-man show in a New York vaudeville theatre, but it did not last.
He eventually went to Paris, France, where in 1911 he converted a small bistro into what became the famous Harry's New York Bar (located at 5 rue Daunou between the Avenue de l'Opéra and the Rue de la Paix). Financial problems from overspending on a lavish lifestyle forced Sloan to sell the bar and return to the U.S.
His money gone, in 1920 he tried acting in motion pictures, but by then his name no longer had the star value to carry him. Married and divorced twice, Sloan died of cirrhosis in 1933, aged 59, in Los Angeles, California, and was interred in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale. [3]
Ultimately, British racing historians restored his reputation, as his betting on races had been a dubious charge at best. He was posthumously inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1955. Sloan told his life story in a book titled "Tod Sloan by Himself" that was published in 1915 of which 200 were signed by Sloan and are highly sought after. Following his death, Beryl Markham received an advance from Houghton Mifflin to write a book on Sloan, but it too was never published because of Markham's own problems.
In 1907, Sloan was married to the stage actress Julia Sanderson. He claimed at the time of the marriage that he had given up racing and gambling, but in the words of his obituary, "neither his decision nor his marriage lasted very long"; Sloan and Sanderson were divorced in 1913. In 1920, he married Elizabeth Saxon Malone, also an actress; they were divorced in 1927, with Elizabeth accusing him of "mental cruelty and habitual intemperance". [4] He had one daughter, Ann Giroux (b. 1922); the two were estranged.[ citation needed ]
The name of Tod Sloan left a mark on the English language. His name was already famous in London because he rode many winners in England where his first name was adopted into the rhyming slang used by the Cockneys of the East end of London to mean 'own' as in 'on his own' (from Tod Sl'oan'). Hence, someone 'on his tod' is alone.
Funeral arrangements were being made today for Tod Sloan, fiftynine, for many years the world's most famous jockey. Death from cirrhosis the liver yesterday ...
Stewart Elliott is an American thoroughbred jockey.
Willie Simms was an American National Champion jockey in Thoroughbred racing and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee who won five of the races that would become the U.S. Triple Crown series.
Michael Earl Smith is an American jockey who has been one of the leading riders in U.S. Thoroughbred racing since the early 1990s, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003, and has won the most Breeders' Cup races of any jockey with 27 Breeders' Cup wins. Smith is also the third leading jockey of all time in earnings with over $336 million. In 2018, Smith rode Justify to the Triple Crown, becoming the oldest jockey to win the title at age 52.
Gary Lynn Stevens is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey, actor, and sports analyst. He became a professional jockey in 1979 and rode his first of three Kentucky Derby winners in 1988. He had nine wins in Triple Crown races, winning the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes three times each, as well as ten Breeders' Cup races. He was also a nine-time winner of the Santa Anita Derby. He entered the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1997. Combining his U.S. and international wins, Stevens had over 5,000 race wins by 2005, and reached his 5,000th North American win on February 15, 2015.
James Gordon Rowe Sr. was an American jockey and horse trainer elected to the Hall of Fame for Thoroughbred Horse racing. He won the Belmont Stakes twice as a jockey and 8 times as a trainer. He had 34 champion horses to his credit, more than any other trainer in the Hall of Fame.
James A. McLaughlin was an American National Champion jockey in Thoroughbred racing and a Hall of Fame inductee.
Jerry D. Bailey is an NBC Sports thoroughbred racing analyst and a retired American Hall of Fame jockey.
Edward Retz "Eddie" Maple is a retired American thoroughbred horse racing jockey. One of eight siblings, he is an older brother to jockey Sam Maple, who won more than 2,500 races.
John R. Velazquez is a Puerto Rican jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. He began his career in Puerto Rico and moved to New York in 1990. In 2004 and 2005 he was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings and both years was given the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey. He was inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2012, rode his 5,000th winner in 2013, and became the leading money-earning jockey in the history of the sport in 2014.
Jorge F. Chavez is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Manuel Ycaza was a Panamanian American jockey who led the way for Latin American jockeys in the United States.
Bowling Brook was a British-bred American-trained Thoroughbred racehorse.
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.
George Martin Odom was an American National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame jockey and trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing. He is only one of two people to ever have won the Belmont Stakes as both a jockey and a trainer.
Eddie Dugan was a jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing who won three American Classic Races and two Canadian Classic Races. In addition, Dugan raced and won in Russian Empire.
John Henry Martin (1875–1944), commonly referred to as "Skeets" Martin, was an American jockey who achieved many racing wins in the United States and the United Kingdom during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His most notable race wins were the 1902 Epsom Derby on Ard Patrick and the 1903 2,000 Guineas on Rock Sand. Martin's technique was often at odds with racing authority rules, his license being suspended several times, and his early career was marred by allegations of cheating and underhanded gambling practices.
Herbert Mornington Cannon (1873–1962), commonly referred to as Morny Cannon, was a six-time Champion jockey in the United Kingdom in the 1890s. He holds the records for the most wins by a jockey in the Craven Stakes, Coronation Stakes and Prince of Wales's Stakes. His most famous mount was Flying Fox who won the British Triple Crown in 1899. He was the son of English jockey and trainer Tom Cannon (1846–1917). In his day he was considered the most perfect master of style and he epitomised "the art of jockeyship".
George Elsworth Smith was an American gambler and Thoroughbred horse racing enthusiast who became a multi-millionaire during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Smith was given the nickname "Pittsburgh Phil" in 1885 by Chicago gambler William "Silver Bill" Riley to differentiate him from the other Smiths that also frequented Riley's pool halls. Pittsburgh Phil is considered by many handicappers to have been an expert strategist, winning large sums of money at a time when racing statistic publications, such as The Daily Racing Form, were not widely available. At the time of his death from tuberculosis in 1905, he had amassed a fortune worth $3,250,000, which is comparable to $US 105,853,704 today. His racing Maxims, published posthumously in 1908, are considered to be the foundations of many modern handicapping strategies and formulas.
Ivan Harris Parke was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse racing jockey and trainer who won more races than any other jockey in the United States in 1923, as an apprentice, and again in 1924 when he also was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings. Parke trained the 1945 Kentucky Derby winner, Hoop Jr. and Jewel's Reward to 1957 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honors.
James Robinson (1794–1873) was a British Jockey. In a riding career which lasted until 1852 he rode the winners of 24 British Classic Races. His six wins in The Derby set a record which was not surpassed until Lester Piggott won his seventh Derby in 1976. His record of nine wins in the 2000 Guineas remains unequaled. Robinson, who was often known as "Jem", retired from riding after an injury in 1852 and died in 1873.