Pat Day
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Patrick Alan "Pat" 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. 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.
Day has ridden winners of U.S. Triple Crown races nine times:
- Kentucky Derby - 1992
- Preakness - 1985, 1990, 1994-96
- Day is the only rider to win the Preakness three consecutive years.
- Belmont Stakes - 1989, 1994, 2000
In 1999 he rode Menifee, who placed directly behind Charismatic in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Prior to the Belmont Stakes, where Menifee failed to place in the top three and Charismatic broke down in the final furlong, their rivalry was compared to that of Affirmed and Alydar in 1978.
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 second all-time in Breeders' Cup winners, with 12:
- Breeders' Cup Classic - 1984, 1990, 1998, 1999
- Breeders' Cup Distaff - 1986, 1991, 2001
- Breeders' Cup Juvenile - 1994, 1997
- Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies - 1987, 1994
- Breeders' Cup Turf - 1987
Day is also the all-time leading rider at Churchill Downs and Keeneland, 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.
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 set a North American record for prize money won, with his mounts earning nearly USD 298 million.
Day and his family reside in Crestwood, a suburb of Louisville, Kentucky.
