Within the sport of horse racing, an excessive amount of emphasis is positioned on profitable the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes, the three races that comprise the coveted U.S. Triple Crown.
Nearly as a lot consideration is paid to the Breeders’ Cup, the 14-race extravaganza that serves because the year-end championship of U.S. horse racing.
In consequence, if a horse, jockey, or coach doesn’t win a number of of those prestigious races, it may be straightforward for them to slide by means of the cracks of historical past. Such has been the case with Sandy Hawley, one of many biggest jockeys of all time.
True, Hawley by no means gained the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, or Belmont, nor did he win any Breeders’ Cup races. However his many different accomplishments have been staggering in each quantity and significance, without end etching his place among the many legends of the game.
Over the course of a profession that started in 1968 and lasted for 30 years, Hawley gained nearly each race there was to win in his native Canada. Born on April 16, 1949, he began driving on the age of 19 and was an in a single day sensation, profitable 230 races in 1969 to guide all apprentice riders in North America. The next yr, he took his profession to a brand new stage by profitable an unimaginable 452 races, greater than some other jockey in North America — apprentice, or in any other case — in 1970. Two years later, he gained 367 races to say the title once more, and in 1973, he achieved a feat that appeared inconceivable by changing into the primary jockey to win greater than 500 races in a single yr, guiding his mounts to the winner’s circle on 515 events to simply surpass the earlier report of 485 held by Invoice Shoemaker.
Having totally conquered Canada, profitable extra races than some other jockey within the nation for six straight years, Hawley set his sights on the U.S. and commenced driving in California in 1975. He rapidly discovered success, and in 1976 he reached the head of the game. As soon as once more, he led all jockeys in North America with a powerful 413 wins, however extra importantly, he gained a exceptional 17 graded stakes races from coast to coast and in Canada, scoring prestigious victories aboard the veteran California-bred Historic Title, the gifted 3-year-old Majestic Mild, and champion turf horse Youth. For his accomplishments, Hawley was awarded the Eclipse Award as excellent jockey in 1976.
The wins stored coming for Hawley in 1977, when he was the common rider of Cascapedia, who gained the Grade 1 Self-importance Handicap, Milady Handicap, and Hawthorne Handicap to safe the Eclipse Award as champion older feminine. He additionally loved continued success aboard Historic Title and Majestic Mild, the latter profitable a pair of Grade 1 races on filth and turf to stamp himself as among the many greatest horses of his era. As well as, Hawley picked up his first top-three end in a U.S. Triple Crown race, ending second within the Belmont Stakes aboard Run Dusty Run.
Hawley spent the vast majority of the 1978 season driving in Canada, the place he as soon as once more led all Canadian jockeys by races gained with 312 victories. Amongst these wins was the Queen’s Plate Stakes, the Canadian equal of the Kentucky Derby, and Hawley’s success led to him being honored with the Sovereign Award as Canada’s excellent jockey. Again on the highway the following yr, he picked up the mount on the promising 3-year-old Golden Act, and the pair proceeded to win the Arkansas Derby and positioned within the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes. Later within the season, Golden Act gained three extra main races with Hawley within the saddle, together with the Grade 1 Canadian Worldwide Championship Stakes.
Hawley gained Grade 1 races on Eleven Stitches, Doonesbury, Fali Time, Marimbula, Reality Finder, and others all through the Eighties. On June 26, 1986, he grew to become the ninth jockey in North American historical past to win 5,000 races. As he stored profitable main races, different accolades adopted. He was inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Corridor of Fame in 1986, and two years later — again in Canada, this time for good — he led all jockeys in Canada with 196 winners and was honored with a second Sovereign Award as Canada’s excellent jockey. In 1992, he acquired yet one more honor when he was inducted into the Racing Corridor of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
By the Nineteen Nineties, Hawley’s profession was starting to wind down, with graded stakes wins changing into fewer and farther between. He was nonetheless profitable a exceptional proportion of the races he rode, however he wasn’t driving in as many as he had through the Seventies. He led all Canadian jockeys in victories one final time in 1990, then slipped to 3rd in 1991 and ultimately dropped out of the highest three as he rode fewer races.
On July 1, 1998, Hawley hung up his saddle with a profession tally of 6,449 wins from 31,455 rides, and that very same yr, he acquired the final word honor when he was inducted into the Canadian Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
As issues would end up, Hawley nonetheless had yet another race to journey. On Oct. 18, 2008, Hawley rode in a “Residing Legends” race at Santa Anita Park, a particular occasion that featured eight Corridor of Fame riders again from retirement to journey in opposition to one another. Guiding a horse named Tribal Chief, Hawley gained the race in front-running vogue to safe his 6,450th victory, which ranks 13th on the all-time listing of main North American jockeys by victories.
“I at all times hoped to get to 50, however I by no means thought I’d do it,” Hawley was quoted as saying in an article on BloodHorse.
As we speak, Hawley stays concerned in racing as a public relations ambassador for the Woodbine Leisure Group. He has performed TV commentary of horse races in Canada, together with the Queen’s/King’s Plate Stakes. It’s laborious to imagine that fifty years have handed since he lit up the racing world together with his record-setting run within the early Seventies, however one factor is for certain — for so long as racing followers collect and focus on the best jockeys of the game, Hawley will at all times be a part of the dialog.
Enjoyable Information
- Though he didn’t win any of the U.S. Triple Crown races, Sandy Hawley dominated the Canadian Triple Crown races, profitable the Queen’s Plate Stakes 4 occasions, the Prince of Wales Stakes twice, and the Breeders’ Stakes on 4 events.
- Hawley gained the Queen’s Plate Stakes aboard Almoner (1970), Kennedy Street (1971), L’Enjoleur (1975), and Regal Embrace (1978).
- Hawley rode the Corridor of Fame filly Dance Neatly in 4 of her first 5 races, together with a win within the 1990 Natalma Stakes and a third-place end within the 1990 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.
- In 1976, Hawley gained Santa Anita Park’s prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which acknowledges these riders whose careers and private character have earned esteem for each the person and the game of Thoroughbred racing.
- Hawley gained greater than 200 stakes races at Woodbine, along with 19 Woodbine driving titles, greater than twice as many as some other jockey in Woodbine historical past.
- In 1988, Hawley gained what was on the time a record-setting 190 races throughout a single meet at Woodbine.
- On two completely different events — on Might 22, 1972 and on Oct. 10, 1974 — Hawley gained seven races in a single day at Woodbine, which stays the usual for probably the most wins in a day by a jockey at Woodbine.
