Hedley Woodhouse

Last updated
Hedley Woodhouse
Occupation Jockey
BornJanuary 23, 1920
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DiedDecember 29, 1984 (aged 64)
Franklin Square, New York, United States
Career wins2,642
Major racing wins
Vanity Handicap (1944)
Hollywood Gold Cup (1944)
Yankee Handicap (1945, 1951)
Butler Handicap (1946, 1952)
Comely Stakes (1946, 1961)
Juvenile Stakes (1948)
Metropolitan Handicap (1949, 1950)
Champagne Stakes (1950, 1953)
Edgemere Handicap (1950, 1956)
Matron Stakes (1950, 1951)
Royal Palm Handicap (1950, 1951)
Spinaway Stakes (1950)
Fleetwing Handicap (1951, 1952)
Tremont Stakes (1951, 1955)
American Legion Handicap
(1952, 1954, 1956)
Daingerfield Handicap (1952)
Jamaica Handicap (1952)
Roamer Handicap (1952, 1955)
Astoria Stakes (1953, 1969)
Cowdin Stakes (1953, 1956)
Gotham Stakes (1954, 1957)
Lawrence Realization Stakes (1954, 1957)
National Stallion Stakes (1954)
Saratoga Handicap (1954)
Travers Stakes (1954, 1956)
Wilson Handicap (1954, 1956)
Champlain Handicap (1955)
Fall Highweight Handicap (1955)
Futurity Stakes (1955)
Great American Stakes (1955)
Laurel Futurity (1955, 1959)
Pimlico Special (1955)
Remsen Stakes (1955)
Toboggan Handicap (1955)
Vosburgh Stakes (1955)
Whitney Handicap (1955)
Coaching Club American Oaks (1956)
Gardenia Stakes (1956)
Monmouth Oaks (1956)
Withers Stakes (1956, 1960, 1961)
Acorn Stakes (1960)
Oceanport Handicap (1960)
Dwyer Stakes (1961)
Firenze Handicap (1961)
Sorority Stakes (1961)
National Stallion Stakes (filly division) (1963)
United Nations Handicap (1967)
Honours
British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame (1979)
Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame (1980)
Significant horses
Happy Issue, Faultless, Fisherman,
Sailor, Three Rings

Hedley John Woodhouse (January 23, 1920 - December 29, 1984) was a Canadian jockey who won the New York state riding championship in 1953. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, he began his racing career there in 1937 at the Lansdowne Park racetrack as an apprentice with A.C.T. Stock Farm owned by industrialist Austin C. Taylor. Woodhouse's ability would soon see him racing at tracks along the West Coast of the United States and in 1944 he rode Happy Issue to victory in the Grade I Vanity Handicap and Hollywood Gold Cup at Hollywood Park Racetrack in Inglewood, California. [1]

Woodhouse rode the colt Fisherman to a 3rd-place finish in the 1949 Kentucky Derby, the best result of his four tries between then and 1957. He rode in the Preakness Stakes on three occasions, his best finish a 5th in 1951. Racing out of New York tracks in the first part of the 1950s, Hedley Woodhouse won the 1953 New York riding championship with 138 victories, and was runner-up on three occasions.

After finishing 7th in the 1954 Kentucky Derby on "Fisherman", a colt owned by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and trained by Sylvester Veitch, Woodhouse came within a neck of winning the Belmont Stakes. His 2nd-place finish was his best in the third of the American Triple Crown races.

From being based in New York, Hedley Woodhouse would make his way to the Florida racing circuit where remarkably at age 50 he won the 1970 jockey title at Tropical Park in Miami. He retired the following year having won 2,642 races. He was inducted into the British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame in 1979 and the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 1980. [2] [3]

Married to Elsie Woodhouse (1919–1998), their son Robert was also a successful jockey, capturing a number of important stakes races on the New York circuit. Hedley and Robert Woodhouse are the only father and son to win the Whitney Handicap.

Hedley Woodhouse died in 1984.

Related Research Articles

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Stout</span>

James Stout was an American Hall of Fame thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won four Triple Crown races.

Robert Nelson "Bobby" Ussery is a retired 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Taral</span> American jockey (1867–1925)

Frederick J. "Fred" Taral was an American Hall of Fame jockey.

Job Dean Jessop was an American National Champion Thoroughbred racing jockey.

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

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joe Notter</span> American jockey

Joseph A. Notter was an American Hall of Fame Champion jockey and winner of two of the American Classic Races.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Albert Johnson (jockey)</span>

Albert M. Johnson was an American Hall of Fame jockey and trainer. Born in the rural community of Milan, Washington, Albert Johnson began his career in 1917 at Playfair Race Track in nearby Spokane.

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.

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.

Samuel A. Boulmetis Sr. was an American thoroughbred horse racing jockey who was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1973. The Hall's induction biography says that "His peers described him as an honest and intelligent rider, qualities he later demonstrated as a racing official and state steward for New Jersey."

Fisherman was an American Thoroughbred racehorse.

Fred A. Smith was a Cuban American jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing best remembered for narrowly missing victory in the 1940 U.S. Triple Crown.

Darrel G. McHargue is a retired American Champion jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. One of five children from a family not connected to horse racing, he was first introduced to riding as a teenage boy when he rode a neighbor's Quarter Horse. He was 17 years old when he made his professional debut in 1972 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky. The following year he was the leading rider at Laurel Park Racecourse in Laurel, Maryland.

Jean-Luc Samyn is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddie Dugan</span>

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 Russia.

Frank Robinson was an American Champion Thoroughbred horse racing jockey.

Raymond "Sonny" Workman was an American National Champion and Hall of Fame jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. During his fifteen years as a professional rider from 1926 through 1940, he won an exceptional twenty percent of his starts.

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.

References

  1. "Hedley Woodhouse;Was Leading Jockey". New York Times. 1984-12-31. Retrieved 2018-12-11.
  2. "Hedley Woodhouse". British Columbia Sports Hall of Fame. 1979-01-01. Archived from the original on October 9, 2015. Retrieved 2018-12-11.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. "Hedley Woodhouse". Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame. 1980-01-01. Retrieved 2018-12-11.