Patrick Alan Day (born October 13, 1953 in Brush, Colorado) is an American jockey. He is a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1991 and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.[1] Day also received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1985, given annually to a North American jockey who demonstrates the highest standards of professional and personal conduct. In 1995, he was voted the Mike Venezia Memorial Award for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship". Pat Day holds all of the career riding records at Churchill Downs and Keeneland, the two most prestigious tracks in Kentucky and among the most competitive in the nation.[2] Day didn't win any riding titles in New York (Saratoga) or Florida (Gulfstream Park url=http://classic.drf.com/news/day-shares-decades-memories | work=Daily Racing Form| first=Marty | last=McGee | title=Day shares decades of memories | date=August 4, 2005 |accessdate=March 23, 2020}}</ref> Day was one of the greatest big money riders, winning nine Triple Crown races and 12 Breeders' Cup races. He and Hall of Fame rider Eddie Arcaro are the only riders to have at least three Belmont Stakes wins and give Preakness wins. Day retired in 2005 with the record for most earnings by a jockey. In 2000, he was the active leader for career Breeders' Cup wins though he was later surpassed as the events were expanded after he retired.
Technique
Pat Day was known for being a patient rider with gentle hands and for not using a horse more than he had to, but was sometimes criticized for waiting too long to make his move. [3] Because Day often came with late runs in big spots and had a reputation for saving horse for the stretch [4] he was given the nickname Patient Pat[5] [6][7] Some critics described Day's riding as exasperating.[8] As Pat Forde, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal, wrote in 1995, "He is so patient he could watch a faucet drip for days".[8] Day's riding style, as Barry Irwin wrote in 2016, "drove many a captain of industry, hard-boot trainer and horseplayer to the brink of rage."[9] D. Wayne Lukas, who won several Triple Crown races with Pat Day, once said "I'm only as good as Pat Day's rides." D. Wayne Lukas[10], and many fans and bettors.[11] Day was equally strong at taking horses to the lead as he did on Louis Quatorze in his 1996 Preakness victory and on Commendable in his 2000 Belmont Stakes win. [12][13] Despite the frequent criticisms of Day's riding style, rides, and being based mostly in the Midwest, Day won all of the biggest races throughout North America during the most competitive era of jockey competition.
Riding
Day stated, "Easy Goer was the best horse I ever rode."[14] Day has ridden winners of U.S. Triple Crown races nine times, ranking him well behind Eddie Arcaro's 17 wins in Triple Crown races as well as Bill Shoemaker's 11, while tied with Gary Stevens, Bill Hartack and Earl Sande's 9 each. However, Day had a poor Kentucky Derby record with only one win in twenty two tries.[15] Some of Day's losses on top horses in the Kentucky Derby included Easy Goer, Forty Niner, Summer Squall, Demon's Begone, Rampage, Corporate Report, Tabasco Cat, Timber Country, Prince of Thieves, Favorite Trick, Ten Most Wanted and in 1999 he rode Menifee, who finished second behind Charismatic in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.[16] Pat Day's first and only Kentucky Derby victory was aboard Lil E. Tee, who in 1992 scored one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Kentucky Derby. On the day of that 1992 Kentucky Derby, future Belmont Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic winner A.P. Indy was forced to scratch from the race due to a foot injury. The heavy favorite in that 1992 Kentucky Derby was American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt and Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Arazi, who was coming into the race after undergoing arthroscopic surgery to remove chip fractures from the top joint of both knees.
In 1991, Pat Day won the Canadian Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup Distaff aboard the future Hall of Fame filly Dance Smartly. He is the only jockey to have ridden at least one mount in each of the first 20 Breeders' Cups, and ranks sixth all-time in Breeders' Cup winners, with 12. Day ranks behind Mike E. Smith's 26 Breeders' Cup winners, John Velazquez's 16, Jerry Bailey's 15, Lanfranco Dettori's 14, and Garrett Gomez's 13.[17]
Records
Day is also the all-time leading rider at Churchill Downs and Keeneland Race Course, the two largest tracks in his adopted home state of Kentucky. At the Downs, Day was often so dominant that veteran horseplayers would complain — bettors would often wager so much money on horses with Day in the saddle that the payoff odds would decline.
In 1989, he set a North American record when he won eight of nine mounts in a single day at Arlington Park.
Religion and retirement
Early in his career, he had serious substance abuse problems with both drugs and alcohol, but became a born-again Christian in the early 1980s. He has been involved with the Race Track Chaplaincy of America since his conversion, and is currently the racing industry's representative on the board of that organization.
After undergoing hip surgery that forced him to miss the Derby for the first time in 21 years, Day announced his retirement on August 3, 2005, after a 32-year career that saw him ride 8,804 winners, fourth on the all-time list, and ranks fourth behind John Velazquez (over $416 million), Mike E. Smith (over $324 million) and Javier Castellano (over $328 million) for prize money won, with his mounts earning nearly $298 million.[18] He said he would retire and commit the rest of his life purely to spreading the Gospel.
Day and his family reside in the Lake Forest subdivision in Louisville, Kentucky.
On June 3, 2016, Kentucky Governor Bevin appointed Day to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.[19][20]
Year-end charts
National List for Jockeys Rankings | ||
---|---|---|
Year | Earnings | Wins |
2000 | 1 | 11 |
2001 | 3 | 19 |
2002 | 4 | 14 |
2003 | 6 | 20 |
2004 | 11 | 54 |
Source:[21] |
References
- ^ "ASHOF Inductees" (PDF). Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame. 2018-01-01. Retrieved 2018-10-17.
- ^ Eisenberg, John (1996). The Longest Shot. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
{{cite book}}
:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ Reed, William (May 27, 1996). "NIGHT AND DAY". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved March 23, 2020.
- ^ Faour, Fred (June 7, 2001). "Dollar Bill has a tough time despite Day Even with Day aboard, talented Dollar Bill has a tough time". Houston Chronicle.
- ^ Privman, Jay (May 3, 1992). "Kentucky Derby: Day Makes the Right Choice : Jockey: The man who passed up rides on Alysheba and Unbridled gets first Derby victory in 10 tries". The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Drape, Joe (August 25, 2003). "Horse Racing: Racing Analysis". The New York Times.
- ^ Diamos, Jason (August 9, 2002). "HORSE RACING". The New York Times.
- ^ a b LaMarra, Tom (April 23, 2014). "Day by Day". Bloodhorse. Retrieved May 19, 2017.
- ^ Irwin, Barry (2016). Derby Innovator: The Making of Animal Kingdom.
- ^ Greene, Jerry (May 19, 1995). "DERBY NO YARDSTICK THIS TIME". Orlando Sentinel.
- ^ Drape, Joe (2001). The Race for the Triple Crown: Horses, high stakes, and eternal hope.
- ^ Christine, Bill (November 8, 1989). "Horse Racing: Maybe It's Time Easy Goer Gets a Different Rider". The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Moran, Paul (September 19, 1989). "Easy Goer Shows He Won't Easily Be Beaten". The Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Van Dyke, Grace (October 21, 2013). "A Blessed Life: Pat Day on making peace with his sport & his faith". Horse Nation.
- ^ McNamara, Ed (May 3, 2017). "Pat Day's career was complete when he finally won Kentucky Derby". Newsday. Retrieved May 22, 2017.
- ^ Guild, The Jockeys' (1999). The History of Race Riding and the Jockeys' Guild. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
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:|work=
ignored (help) - ^ "Leading Breeders' Cup Jockey Stats". Breeders' Cup. October 21, 2013. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
- ^ "All Time Leaders - Jockeys". Equibase. May 23, 2017. Retrieved May 23, 2017.
- ^ "Gov. Bevin Appoints 3 Members to Horse Racing Commission". The Laner Report. June 3, 2016.
- ^ "Pat Day" (PDF). khrc.ky.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 21, 2016. Retrieved January 7, 2017.
- ^ "Pat Day | Top 100 Rankings (Since 2000)". Equibase.