| George Odom |
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 Odom, circa 1903. |
| Occupation | Trainer |
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| Born | July 8, 1882
Columbus, Georgia |
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| Died | July 29, 1964 (aged 72) |
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| Career wins | 527 (as a jockey) |
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As a jockey:
Champagne Stakes (1899, 1904)
Jerome Handicap (1899)
National Stallion Stakes (1899)
Pansy Stakes (1899)
Sapphire Stakes (1899)
Advance Stakes (1900, 1902, 1903)
Laureate Stakes (1900, 1903)
Municipal Handicap (1900, 1902, 1903)
September Stakes (1900, 1902)
Gazelle Handicap (1901)
Matron Stakes (1901, 1902)
Metropolitan Handicap (1901)
Toboggan Handicap (1901, 1904)
Tremont Stakes (1901)
Annual Champion Stakes (1902)
Brighton Derby (1902)
Brighton Handicap (1902, 1903)
Champlain Handicap (1902, 1904)
First Special Stakes (1902)
Hudson Stakes (1902)
Lawrence Realization Stakes (1902)
Surf Stakes (1902)
Double Event Stakes (part 2) (1903)
Eclipse Stakes (1903)
Flying Handicap (1903)
Great American Stakes (1903)
Juvenile Stakes (1903)
Occidental Handicap (1903)
Ocean Handicap (1903)
Saratoga Handicap (1903)
Test Handicap (1903)
Russet Stakes (1904)
Withers Stakes (1904)
Fashion Stakes (1905)American Classic Race wins:
Belmont Stakes (1904)
As a trainer:
Walden Stakes (1908)
Flying Handicap (1909)
Russet Stakes (1909)
Tremont Stakes (1918, 1937)
Test Stakes (1922, 1941)
Hudson Stakes (1925)
Huron Handicap (1925)
Champlain Handicap (1926)
Empire City Handicap (1926, 1927)
Toboggan Handicap (1926)
Belmont Futurity Stakes (1928, 1935)
Metropolitan Handicap (1928)
Youthful Stakes (1928)
Manhattan Handicap (1929, 1949)
Pierrepont Handicap (1930)
Fleetwing Handicap (1936)
Juvenile Stakes (1937)
Tremont Stakes (1937)
Daingerfield Handicap (1941)
Saranac Handicap (1942)
Arlington Handicap (1945)
Hollywood Derby (1945)
San Pasqual Handicap (1945)
San Vicente Stakes (1945)
Santa Anita Handicap (1945)
Santa Anita Oaks (1945)
National Stallion Stakes (1951)
United States Hotel Stakes (1951)
Santa Margarita Handicap (1945)
Washington Park Handicap (1945)
Great American Stakes (1946)
Travers Stakes (1947)
Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes (1957)
Fashion Stakes (1957)
National Stallion Stakes (filly division) (1957)
Schuylerville Stakes (1957)
American Classic Race wins:
Belmont Stakes (1938) |
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| National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame (1955) |
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As a jockey:
Africander, Banastar, Broomstick, Delhi,
Ethelbert, Gold Heels, Imp
As a trainer:
Busher, Chance Play, Nimba,
Pasteurized, Tippity Witchet |
George Martin Odom (July 8, 1882 – July 29, 1964) was an American National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame jockey and trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing. He is only one of two people to ever have won the Belmont Stakes as both a jockey and a trainer.
A native of Columbus, Georgia, at age fourteen George Odom galloped horses for future Hall of Fame trainer, William P. Burch. He began riding professionally at age fifteen and in 1899 at age sixteen, won his first race. He quickly made such an impression that an April 10, 1899, article in the Chicago Daily Tribune referred to him as another Tod Sloan. In June 1899, the eighty-seven-pound Odom, who was an early advocate of the short-stirrup riding manner used today, signed a contract to ride for W. C. Whitney for a salary of $10,000 a year with additional compensation on a sliding scale for winning and finishing in the money.[citation needed]
He rode at tracks in New York, New Orleans and the Benning Race Track in Washington, D.C. Among his major wins as a jockey, Odom rode Banastar to victory in the 1901 Metropolitan and Toboggan Handicaps.[1] The best known of his mounts was future Hall of Fame inductee, Broomstick.[2]
After just eight years as a jockey, George Odom retired from riding in 1905 with a 17.2 winning percentage. Widely respected, he had earned a reputation as an honest jockey in an era when race fixing was not uncommon. Odom then made his home in Atlanta, Georgia, and immediately turned to training horses.[3]
