Word: hartack
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Four days later, around the barns and in the clubhouse as well, Willie Hartack was a hero. He had climbed aboard Calumet's second stringer, Iron Liege, and won the Derby when Willie Shoemaker stood up in his stirrups on Gallant Man a few yards from the finish. As the 1957 racing season galloped on, Hartack went on to ride almost every champion horse of the year. When Hialeah opened its current meeting with a parade of eight of last year's top horses, the only compromise that would satisfy the owners was to have exercise boys in the saddles...
...Bride. Though he enjoys his fame and his riches, Willie Hartack has not yet found how to be comfortable with either. From his $50,000 ranch house, among the garish candy-colored villas of Miami, Bill indulges his passing whims (e.g., water skiing and skindiving). Visitors make him nervous as they leave burning cigarettes on expensive table tops and track sand on lush new carpets, stare at his specially commissioned mural of knights in armor, gawk at the somber black decor of the master bedroom with its giant closet of 40 suits, or at the bookshelves stocked only with Racing...
...Hartack, unlike many of his colleagues, weight is never a problem. He eats outlandish combinations of foods?potato chips, pickles and ice cream, for example; yet he seldom needs to glance at a jockey's sweatbox. Nor does he need much sleep; no matter how late he bids his date good night, he sits up for an hour or two examining the past-performance charts to prepare himself for the next day in the saddle...
...sandwich while he plays a game of pool or knock rummy before a race, Willie almost seems one of the boys. His quick answers are not always cutting; the casual remark is often actually friendly. But warm spontaneity is seen so seldom that even among the other jocks Hartack has no real intimates...
...think." From his position as elder statesman of U.S. jockeys, the great Eddie Arcaro is more charitable. "He's a good rider," says Eddie. "There's no doubt of it. His records show that. As to his uneven riding, the only time he does that is in the stretch. Hartack's always been good, and I think he's improved now over what he was. Some people think he's cocky, but he doesn't mean it the way a lot of people interpret it. He don't believe anybody can beat him doing anything. Whatever he does, he does...