Word: hartack
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Hartack's introduction to racing might have unnerved a less cocky boy. His first time on the track, he saw five horses fall in a frightening pileup. "Jocks were lying all over the place," he recalls. Corbin talked fast to assure the boy that such accidents were rare, and a few days later he conned Bill into climbing aboard a horse. First, the beast tried to run away with its helpless rider, and Willie just managed to hang on. Next time, says Corbin, "the horse went down on its knees and Bill slid onto its head. He just sat there...
...Corbin could not persuade Willie to try the next step up on the track's social scale. "I don't want to be a jockey," Hartack kept saying. "I just want to be a good exercise...
...days later, on a 50-to-1 shot, Bill finished out of the money once more. But Corbin was satisfied. He said, "All right, you'll ride Nickleby tomorrow, and he'll win." The new jock was still riding scared. "When I got up on Nickleby," says Hartack, "I just sat and posed. I never moved, never hit him or nothing. If I'd 'a hit him I'd have fallen off, I was so frightened. But Nickleby win and paid $18, and I break my maiden [i.e., won his first race...
...Mines. Once started, Willie Hartack never broke stride. There were only two weeks left until the Waterford meeting ended on Nov. 1, 1952; yet he managed to ride six more winners. The next year Hartack was suddenly riding in full career. He bought a Jaguar, a batch of suits, and he still had enough left over to keep a youthful promise. Although a jockey gets only $20 for merely riding a race (this is pushed up to $50 for winning, $35 for second place and $25 for third), he also usually gets 10% of any purse his mount wins. After...
...sooner was his father settled on the farm than Willie got another big break. One of the horses trained by Junie Corbin was found to be doped, and according to racing law, the trainer took the rap. Junie needed money badly, and the most valuable property he owned was Hartack's contract. Willie's services were sold to Mrs. Ada L. Rice...