Kentucky Derby Legend Pat Day to address Thoroughbred association
The guest speaker for the SC Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association annual awards dinner is Hall of Fame jockey Pat Day. The event will begin at 7 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Robert Mills Courthouse, 607 S. Broad St in Camden.
A native of Colorado, Day was competitive in sports from his childhood. Despite his small and wiry physique, he won a state wrestling championship in his weight category. His daredevil nature and natural abilities led him to try his hand at rodeo bull riding, but his true talents came to light when he started riding Thoroughbred race horses.
His first win was in 1973 at Prescott Downs, AZ. Unhampered by the weight issues which plague so many jockeys, Day quickly climbed the ranks in the Midwest. By the late ‘70s he was at the top of the national standings and began his run as leading rider at Churchill Downs.
Day’s racing career over the next three decades reads like a jockey’s textbook on success. He won the Kentucky Derby with long shot Lil E. Tee in 1992, and his list of champion mounts include Unbridled, Summer Squall, Tank’s Prospect, Louis Quatorze, Canadian Triple Crown winner Dance Smartly, and 1968 Horse of the Year, Lady’s Secret.
He is the top money-winning jockey in Breeders’ Cup history, and he is the only jockey to have ridden in the first 21 years of the event. His personal pick for the best horse he ever rode was Easy Goer, who battled Sunday Silence in the ’89 Triple Crown. Sunday Silence won the Derby and the Preakness, but Easy Goer turned the tables in the Belmont Stakes with a dominating 14-length victory.
Day’s professional honors include four Eclipse Awards and induction into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1991. He won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1985 and the Mike Venizia Memorial Award in 1995 for “extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship.”
In 2005, Day traded in his tack for a new position as industry representative for the Racetrack Chaplaincy. He now divides his time between his family in Kentucky and spreading the Gospel at tracks, colleges, and churches worldwide.
Tickets for the Jan. 21 banquet are $75. The dinner will be preceded by a silent auction beginning at 6 p.m. To reserve a seat or for more information, contact sctoba@frontier.com or call 803-206-4473.
For information about South Carolina’s equine industry, contact Marsha Hewitt at the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (mhewitt@scda.sc.gov or 803-734-2210).
