Word: ridings
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...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...
...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...
...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 as evidence...
...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. Hartack had won big stakes on five of the eight racers...
...said Veteran Rider Steve Brooks. "He don't care what we 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...