Word: rider
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There is another track term for a jockey: race rider. The title is used sparingly so that, in a generation of boys, only a handful, the very best, will earn the honor. Arcaro, Atkinson, Longden were race riders. And Shoemaker, Hartack, Cordero, Pincay, Baeza, Turcotte, Velasquez. Now there is Steve Cauthen, only 18 and a race rider. A prodigy at 16, a fearless boy returning from an ugly spill at 17, and less than a month past his 18th birthday, winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, the first two classics of the Triple Crown...
Saturday's Preakness victory on Affirmed is further proof, as much as any single race can be, of Cauthen's claim to be on the select list. At 1 3/16miles, the Preakness provides an honest test of the three-year-old Thoroughbred and an intense examination of the rider. The shorter course (1/16 of a mile less than the Derby and 5/16 of a mile less than the Belmont Stakes) demands the hot speed that is the first hallmark of the breed. A topflight field hurtling around Pimlico's tight turns leaves no margin for error by a jockey: fail...
...seems, born to ride, booting home Affirmed to a 1½-length victory in the 104th running of the Kentucky Derby. It was a classic race-from the early speed burst of the front runners to the galvanic closing rush of second-place Alydar-and the savvy young rider showed textbook mastery of horse and course...
...away the victor three times. Affirmed was a lot of horse to put in the hands of a youth who was then not yet old enough to vote, but Trainer Laz Barrera had no qualms about the boy from Kentucky. Said Barrera: "I'm not worried. As a rider, Cauthen is an old man. It seems like he's been riding 100 years...
...rides as much as he can. Last month, riding on a mount called Christmas Goose, he won, for the fourth year, Virginia's famous 100-mile ride, a three-day exercise that is meant to test the endurance of the horse as much as the ability of the rider. As a result of all his exercise, Paul, at 5 ft. 10 in., is still fit and slim...