John Longden

Longden, a Yorkshireman who emigrated to western Canada with his parents at the age of five, became one of America’s greatest jockeys and rode the winners of a record 6,032 races between 1927 and 1966.

John Eric Longden, born in Wakefield on February 15, 1907, grew up in Tabor, Alberta, and worked in the local coal-mines while riding in unofficial bareback races at fairs and bush tracks.

Having hopped on a south-bound freight train, he gained his first official victory on Hugo K Asher at Salt Lake City in October 1927 but it took several years of hard struggle before he reached the front rank of jockeys.

He gained the first of his five national jockeys’ titles in 1938; he also headed the numerical list in 1947 and 1948, and was financial champion in 1943 and 1945.

He partnered subsequent Triple Crown hero Whirlaway to some of his juvenile victories in 1940 but all his other mounts paled by comparison with Count Fleet, one of the greatest of all American champions.

Owned by John Hertz, founder of the car-hire company, Count Fleet was the top two-year-old of 1942 and proved invincible at three, when his six races included the Triple Crown events plus the Wood Memorial and Withers Stakes.

Count Fleet took the Kentucky Derby by three lengths, the Preakness by eight and the Belmont by 25 – a record margin for the race until Secretariat came along.

Unfortunately, he suffered an injury during the Belmont which caused his retirement from racing.

The champion jockey became an American citizen in 1944 and the following season teamed up with the best filly he ever rode – Horse of the Year, Busher, owned by MGM boss Louis B Mayer.

After Count Fleet, Longden rated Noor the second-best horse of his career. Third in the 1948 Derby, Noor became, when exported to America, the champion older horse of 1950, beating the great Citation in four consecutive races including the Santa Anita Handicap, and then adding the Hollywood Gold Cup.

Longden, who was based in California for much of his career, won the 1955 Santa Anita Derby on Swaps and in 1956 enjoyed one of his most memorable years, reaching a career peak of 320 wins and replacing another miner’s son, Sir Gordon Richards, as the world’s most prolific winning jockey when scoring his 4,871st success on Arrogate at Del Mar in September.

Later that month he paid one of his periodic visits to Europe, winning the Edinburgh Gold Cup on Hindu Wand. On other visits he won the Blandford Stakes at The Curragh on Pink Larkspur in 1949 and the Woodcote Stakes at Epsom on Loyal Lady in 1958; he had unplaced mounts in the Derbys of Never Say Die and Hard Ridden.

Longden’s big-race triumphs grew fewer as he reached his 50s, though he gave a masterful ride to T V Lark when beating the great Kelso in the 1961 Washington DC International.

His very last mount was Canadian champion George Royal in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap at Santa Anita in March 1966 and he got up right on the line to win by a nose. When the verdict was announced, 59-year-old Longden returned to the most emotional farewell any jockey has ever received. It was his 6,032nd victory, a record which lasted until Bill Shoemaker beat it in 1970.

Longden took up training and earned further renown as the only man to win the Kentucky Derby as both jockey and trainer.

In 1967 he paid a world record $250,000 for a yearling on behalf of Canadian Frank McMahon. Named Majestic Prince, the colt was a late developer, but Longden got him ready for the Classics and he gamely edged out Arts And Letters in close finishes to the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

Against the wishes of Longden, who felt Majestic Prince was tired, the owner insisted he go for Triple Crown honours in the Belmont Stakes. The colt suffered the only defeat of his career and never ran again.

John Longden came up the hard way, via the coal-mines in which he developed his powerful physique, and had to fight for his opportunities, which showed in the riding tricks he learned in pre-camera patrol days.

His friend Bill Shoemaker once said:

"John Longden was the greatest competitor I ever rode with. He’d try to beat you any way he could, and he usually did. He probably taught me more about riding – just by watching the things he did in our races together – than any other jockey I ever rode with."

While most observers would not quite put Longden in contention with Earl Sande, Eddie Arcaro and Bill Shoemaker for the title of America’s Greatest Jockey, no rider was more respected. He was a true giant of the Turf.

John Longden, the most successful British-born jockey in racing history, died on Friday, February 14, 2003, the day before his 96th birthday.