Description
Peb's artwork depicts Ted Atkinson, U.S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey.
Ted Atkinson (1916-2005) began riding professionally at the age of 21. In his first decade of riding he rose to America’s leading jockey by wins and money earned in 1944 and 1946.
Atkinson rode War Relic in an upset victory over the 1941 Triple Crown Winner Whirlaway in the Narrangansett Special. That ride gained him the national recognition that continued throughout his 21-year career.
Atkinson won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes riding Greentree’s Capot in 1949 and the New York Handicap Triple riding Tom Fool in 1953. Of his 23,661 career mounts, he considered Tom Fool the best and brightest horse he ever rode, writing in his diary that “Tom Fool had muscles in his eyebrows.” Atkinson rode the colt to win all of his ten races in 1953 — the same year in which Tom Fool won the American Horse of the Year honors.
Atkinson received the George Woolf Memorial Award and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 1957.