Eddie Arcaro | |
---|---|
Occupation | Jockey |
Born | Cincinnati, Ohio, United States | February 19, 1916
Died | November 14, 1997 Miami, Florida, United States | (aged 81)
Resting place | Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Cemetery, Miami, Florida, United States |
Career wins | 4,779 |
Major racing wins | |
Jockey Club Gold Cup (10) Juvenile Stakes (7) National Stallion Stakes (7) Wood Memorial Stakes (9) Suburban Handicap (8) Withers Stakes (6) Kentucky Oaks (4)U.S. Triple Crown series: Kentucky Derby (5) Preakness Stakes (6) Belmont Stakes (6) | |
Racing awards | |
United States Triple Crown (1941, 1948) United States Champion Jockey by earnings (1940, 1942, 1948, 1950, 1952, 1958) George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award (1953) Big Sport of Turfdom Award (1974) | |
Honours | |
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1958) Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame (1971) Eddie Arcaro Stakes at Hialeah Park | |
Significant horses | |
Whirlaway, Citation, Ponder, Hoop Jr., Challedon, Kelso, Nashua, Mark-Ye-Well, Hill Prince, Bold Ruler, Sword Dancer, Real Delight |
George Edward Arcaro (February 19, 1916 – November 14, 1997)[1] was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who won more American classic races than any other jockey in history and is the only rider to have won the U.S. Triple Crown twice. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest jockeys in the history of American Thoroughbred horse racing. Arcaro was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of an impoverished taxi driver. His parents, Pasquale and Josephine, were Italian immigrants and his father held a number of jobs, including taxi driver and operator of an illegal liquor enterprise during Prohibition. Arcaro was born prematurely, and weighed just three pounds at birth; because of this, he was smaller than his classmates and was rejected when he tried out for a spot on a baseball team. His full height would reach just five-foot, two inches. Eventually nicknamed "Banana Nose" by his confreres, Arcaro won his first race in 1932 at the Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico; he was 16 years old. In 1934, the inaugural year of Narragansett Park, Arcaro was a comparative unknown who rode many of his early career races at 'Gansett.[2]