Word: hartack
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Another Country. "Corbin's losing that contract made all the difference," says Hartack. "He was a halfer [i.e., raced mainly at half-mile tracks], and I don't think I would have left him. I had no great ambition for the milers. It was like going to a different country...
...surroundings were strange, Jockey Hartack learned his way around quickly enough. He was riding high-bred horses now, and he was really in the money...
When his contract with Mrs. Rice ran out, Hartack saw no need to stay tied down to one stable. He was good enough to risk the life of a freelance, with a broader choice of mounts and the pleasure of hiring out to the highest bidders. After a couple of years of getting up at dawn to work horses and muck out stables, Bill found it nice to lie in bed late, then drive to the track to ride horses hand-picked by his agent...
...with the Answers. Hartack ran through six agents, finally settled down with 30-year-old Chick Lang, son of the jockey who won the 1928 Kentucky Derby on Reigh Count. Chunky Chick Jr., an admirable foil for his rider's furious disposition, studies the available horses at the meetings where Hartack rides, matches them against the condition book (an advance schedule of races), and picks probable winners. For 20% of the Hartack earnings, it is Lang's job to get his boy hired to ride winners and still not anger the trainers he has to turn down. It is cited...
...typical display of the Hartack temper took place last spring in Louisville the evening after Bill's Derby mount, Calumet's Gen. Duke, was beaten in the Derby Trial. A Los Angeles turf writer approached the jockey at dinner and asked a polite question about the race. "I didn't come here to answer questions," Hartack snarled. "I came to eat. If you want to ask me questions, see me around the barns tomorrow...