Good morning, it’s May 3. Saturday is Derby Day, and today is a date in history that should inspire all the baby boomers now entering middle age or on the precipice of retirement: On this day 1986, famed jockey Willie Shoemaker rode a horse named Ferdinand to victory in the Kentucky Derby.
Already a Hall-of-Fame rider, “The Shoe” was 54 years old.
His name was never Willie, although it seemed to fit because he was so small -- even for a jockey. Born on Aug. 19, 1931, in West Texas, he weighed less than 40 ounces and was only 10 ½ inches long. The family’s doctors weren’t sure he’d live through the night, but his parents named him Billie Lee Shoemaker and took him home.
The boy lived, his parents divorced, and Bill moved with his father to Los Angeles. Like most jockeys, young Shoemaker was an exceptional athlete despite his diminutive size. He had strong hands, fast reflexes – and was fearless – traits that led him first to the boxing ring, where he won local championships in Golden Gloves competitions while fighting in the under-105-pound class, and later to the track.
While mucking out stables on a California thoroughbred ranch as a teenager, Shoemaker saw his true calling. He began as an exercise rider at Northern California tracks and was given his first professional ride on March 19, 1949. He rode his first winner that April in a six-furlong claiming race at Golden Gate Fields aboard a chestnut filly named Shafter V.
Asked many years later if he remembered the horse, he replied, “You bet I remember her. I almost went into shock. … I think I got about $10.”
There would be many more winners to come – 218 that year alone, and a stunning total of 8,833 before he retired. At 4-foot-11 and only 96 pounds, Shoemaker didn’t have to sweat to make weight like most riders, and those powerful hands he’d used in the boxing ring became legendary as he guided 1,500-pound thoroughbreds around tracks all over the world.
Shoe was a fan favorite, partly because he eschewed the whip more than most, and partly because of his dignified nature. He won his first Derby aboard Swaps in 1955 and would have won his second two years later aboard Gallant Man if he’d not misjudged the finish line and stood up in the irons prematurely. He explained his mistake matter-of-factly (the finish line had been changed) and kept riding.
In 1959, he misjudged the Derby finish again, but in a way that did not impact the race.
Late that spring, Shoe had had been riding Sword Dancer, the eventual Horse of the Year, but he had previously agreed to take the mount on a now-forgotten horse named Tommy Lee in the big race, and he kept his word. In the stretch of the Kentucky Derby, when it seemed that Sword Dancer was swooping by Tommy Lee, Shoemaker called out to fellow rider Bill Boland, “Good luck! I hope you win it.”
But Shoemaker’s horse was game and held on for the victory. By the time he retired, Shoe would sit in the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle four times, along with two Preakness winners – and five in the Belmont Stakes. His last Triple Crown victory came aboard 18-1 long shot Ferdinand on May 3, 1986.
He had taken several nasty spills in his career by then and the reflexes were fading, but on this day 27 years ago he gave his horse a flawless ride, patiently guiding stretch-running Ferdinand through the pack until he saw an opening on the rail. He steered his horse through it and the big colt shot to the lead, winning by 2 ½ lengths.
“What a feeling,” he proclaimed. “I was half in shock.”
He rode competitively for the last time on Feb. 3, 1990, at his home racing circuit in Southern California. Shoe was aboard 7-year-old Patchy Groundfog that afternoon in a one-mile turf race Santa Anita Park had billed as “The Legend's Last Ride.”
The legend and his mount were the sentimental betting favorites of the big Santa Anita crowd that day, as well as eminent race caller Trevor Denman, who set aside his normal impartiality to call, “C’mon Shoe!” as the horse took the lead at the top of the stretch.
Although Patchy Groundfog faded to finish fourth, Shoemaker was not the kind to just fade away. In retirement, he became a trainer, and was pursuing this vocation on April 8, 1991, while driving on a deserted stretch of highway. He had been drinking -- and was trying to place a call to his wife on his cell phone -- when he lost control of his Ford Bronco, which plunged down an embankment. The crash left Shoemaker paralyzed from the neck down.
He resumed training horses in a supervisory role less than six months later, sharing his wisdom about horses from a wheelchair. He retired from training on Nov. 3, 1997, having won $3.7 million in earnings, and died in his sleep at home in San Marino, Calif., on Oct. 12, 2003.
Bill Shoemaker left us with the memories of his many remarkable rides, his consummate professionalism, and these inspiring words:
“I never gave up,” he told writer Ron Flatter. “A few times I didn’t think I was going to make it. But I never quit.”
