Sports Notables - Help Us Celebrate the 150th Kentucky Derby!

Question

In 1872, Col. Meriweather Lewis Clark Jr., grandson of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark expedition, organized the Louisville Jockey Club. The track would soon become known as Churchill Downs. There, on 17 May 1875, in front of a crowd of 10,000 people, a field of 15 three-year-old horses contested the first Kentucky Derby. This Saturday (4 May 2024) more that 150,000 are expected to attend the 150th running of the race, with half a million more participating in various related events around the word. This year's purse is $5 million!

This month we are celebrating 23 of thoroughbred racing's greatest jockeys, along with 10 legendary triple crown winning trainers. Won't you help us make each of their profiles a shining star of WikiTree!

We need the help of BioBuilders, Sourcerers, DataDoctors, Categorizers, Formatters, Proofreaders, PhotoFinders, and more. For those who prefer research over profile building, we also want to increase each of our Notables' CC7s, and of course we want to make sure that each gets connected to the Big Tree.

Remember, no contribution is too small, so please jump in wherever you think you'll have the most fun. Just remember to keep us posted on your accomplishments here on the G2G thread so that we can all share in the fun of your successes.

Answer 1

Max Hirsch and Ben Jones are connected.

Answer 2

Don Cameron and Jimmy Jones are connected.

Answer 3

Johnny Sellers is connected.

Answer 4

Johnny Loftus is connected.

Answer 5

Lester Piggott is connected

Comments

Jockeys breed jockeys and jockeys' daughters marry jockeys.  Lester's father won the Welsh Grand National and trained the winner of the British Grand National (probably the UK's most famous horse race).  Lester's uncle was Victor Piggott who rode in the 1929 Grand National, and Victor's father, Lester's grandfather was Ernest Piggott, a three-time British champion jump jockey.

Ernest married Margaret Cannon who was a sister to four jockeys, including Morny Cannon, a 6-time champion flat jockey who was named after the horse (Mornington) his father won on on the day of his birth!

Yes, their father Tom Cannon was also a jockey, champion on the flat in 1872, and his wife Catherine was the daughter of John Day, a successful trainer (probably a jockey before that) and the son of even more famous trainer John Barham Day.

I have polished up some of the existing profiles and made a new one for Morny Cannon but I haven't got round to all his brothers or mother or the two John Days.  In fact there are even more Days, and lots of other interconnected British jockey families!

So anyone willing to help out with these families will be very much appreciated!

Answer 6

Anna Lee Aldred is connected.

Answer 7

Today is a very nostalgic day for me. My grandfather, Jack Meyers, was a horse racing official in California, and many of my extended family members were racehorse owners, trainers, and enthusiasts. 

This is a picture of me in the Winners Circle at age three. I'm being held by my Uncle Will who later also became a horseracing official. The horse was named Perizan and the jockey was Manuel Yanez. The woman is my great-aunt Coralie Meyers, the horse's owner. The man in the dark suit is my great-uncle Buster, the horse's trainer.   

The race was held 21 Apr 1968, at Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico, which was actually part of the California racing circuit. My grandfather was the tack manager. At various times he also managed Hollywood Park, Del Mar, and Santa Anita tracks.

I certainly miss those days!

Answer 8

Johnny Longden is connected. Thank you for sharing the wonderful photograph!

Comments

Johnny Longden was a personal friend of my grandparents. As mentioned in his profile, he lived on Lemon Avenue in Arcadia, California (northeast of Los Angeles) about a block down the road from the home my mother grew up in. This was also less than two miles away from Santa Anita Racetrack. There is so much history there.

Interestingly, Johnny also lived about two blocks north of Longden Avenue on which sat my elementary school, Longden Elementary. I've never been able to determine whether or not the school was named for him, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me.

Answer 9

My grandmother photobombing jockeys Willie Shoemaker and Eddie Arcaro (c.1950s)

Answer 10

According to family lore, I am related to William Clark, still working on proving or disproving this statement. Keep up the good work everyone! I might try and join in.

Answer 11

Got Penny Ann Early connected.

Answer 12

Bill Hartack is connected.

Answer 13

Henry 'Harry' Beasley is now connected

Answer 14

Eddie Arcaro is connected.

Answer 15

Red Pollard is connected.

Answer 16

William “Smokey” Saunders is connected.

Answer 17

Connected FOUR horse-racing notables for the price of one

Patrick Pat Eddery is on the Sports Horse Racing Legends https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Eddery-1  and is now connected. 

He was married to Carolyn Mercer in 1978, but divorced in 2009. Carolyn is the daughter of flat jockey Manny Mercer https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mercer-6663 , niece of jockey Joe Mercer https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Mercer-6665 , and granddaughter of jockey Harry Wragg  https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Wragg-833

It was a long process but all four Notable Jockeys should now be connected

Comments

It's always fun when you can link a thread of Notables. Congratulations!

Answer 18

Billy Turner is connected.