William Norris Boland (born July 16, 1933) is an American retired Hall of Fame jockey and trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing. [1]
Boland began his riding career in 1949 at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. While still a sixteen-year-old apprentice, riding Better Self for owner Robert J. Kleberg Jr.'s King Ranch and trainer Max Hirsch, Boland earned the first stakes race win of his career on April 29, 1950 in the Gallant Fox Handicap at Jamaica Race Course. [2] He went on to the Kentucky Oaks aboard Ari's Mona [3] then the following day rode Middleground to victory in the Kentucky Derby. [4] Boland missed winning the U.S. Triple Crown series that year when he and Middleground finished second after a rough trip in the Preakness Stakes but then won the Belmont Stakes. [5] In 1966 Boland won his second Belmont Stakes aboard Amberoid for trainer Lucien Laurin. [6]
Widely respected by his peers, in 1959 Bill Boland received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award given to the North American jockey who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack. [7]
Bill Boland retired from racing in 1969 and turned to training horses for a time. He was inducted into the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 2006.
William John Hartack Jr., born in Colver, Pennsylvania, was a Hall of Fame jockey. Colver is in the northwestern part of Cambria Township, 7 miles (11 km) northwest of Ebensburg, the county seat.
John Eric "Johnny" Longden was an American Hall of Fame and National Champion jockey and a trainer of Thoroughbred racehorses who was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England. His father emigrated to Canada in 1909, settling in Taber, Alberta.
Middleground was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 1950 Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes and came second in the Preakness Stakes. He was named the 1950 American Horse of the Year and Champion Three-Year-Old Male.
Patrick Alan "Pat" Day is a retired American jockey. He is a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. Day won nine Triple Crown races and 12 Breeders' Cup races. He was once the leader for career Breeders' Cup wins though he was later surpassed as the events were expanded after he retired.
Jerry D. Bailey is an NBC Sports thoroughbred racing analyst and a retired American Hall of Fame jockey. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest jockeys of all time.
Robert Nelson Ussery was an American Thoroughbred horse racing hall of fame jockey. His first race as a professional jockey came at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans on November 22, 1951, where he rode Reticule to victory in the Thanksgiving Handicap. By the end of the decade, he had won the Travers, Whitney and Alabama Stakes.
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.
Johnny Sellers was an American National Champion jockey. Born in Los Angeles, but raised in Oklahoma, he began his professional career in 1955 and between 1959 and 1968 rode in six Kentucky Derbys. He won the prestigious race aboard Carry Back in 1961 then riding the colt to victory in the Preakness Stakes. That same year, he won eight straight races, equaling an American record set in 1951, and ended the year as the United States Champion Jockey by wins. He made the August 28, 1961, cover of Sports Illustrated magazine.
Maximilian Justice "Max" Hirsch was an American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse trainer.
Calvin H. Borel is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing and rode the victorious mount in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, the 2009 Kentucky Derby and the 2010 Kentucky Derby. His 2009 Derby win with Mine That Bird was the third biggest upset in Derby history,, and Borel's winning margin of 6+3⁄4 lengths was the greatest in Derby history since Assault won by 8 lengths in 1946. On May 1, 2009, Borel won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Rachel Alexandra, only the second time since 1993 that a jockey has won the Oaks-Derby combo, and just the seventh time overall a jockey has accomplished this feat in the same year. On May 16, 2009, Borel won the 2009 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico with thoroughbred filly Rachel Alexandra. In doing so, Borel became the first jockey to win the first two jewels of the Triple Crown on different mounts. Borel's nickname is "Bo'rail'" due to his penchant for riding close to the rail to save ground.
Alfred Masson Robertson was a Hall of Fame jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Javier Castellano is a Venezuelan jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Joseph A. Notter was an American Hall of Fame Champion jockey and winner of two of the American Classic Races.
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.
Bold Venture was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.
David Erb was an American jockey and trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing. He started riding as a young farm boy and began his professional riding career in 1938, competing at tracks in his native Nebraska. He got his first win at Oaklawn Park Race Track in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
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.
William J. "Bill" Passmore Sr. was an American jockey and racing steward who raced thoroughbred horses for 38 years, including at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes, winning 3,531 races and $23 million in prize money before spending 20 years as a steward.
Douglas Allan Dodson was a Champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
James Theodore Combest was a jockey and trainer in American Thoroughbred racing. He was one of three brothers in a prominent racing family. Older brother Nick was both a jockey and trainer while younger brother Reed trained and owned Thoroughbreds his entire career.