Bill Shoemaker on the scales at Aqueduct

Bill Shoemaker on the scales at Aqueduct

Photography of horse sports

This photograph features jockey William Lee "The Shoe" Shoemaker on the scales after riding his 300th win at Aqueduct in 1959.

Bill Shoemaker rode for 40 years, winning roughly 21.9% of 40,350 races before his retirement in 1990. He was America’s leading jockey ten times in money won and five times in races won.

He won the Kentucky Derby four times, aboard Swaps in 1955, Tomy Lee in 1959, Lucky Debonair in 1965, and Ferdinand in 1986 at the age of 54.

His 11 trips to Triple Crown winner’s circles also include his two Preakness Stakes wins (1963, 1967) and five Belmont Stakes wins (1957, 1959, 1962, 1967, 1975). 

Shoemaker was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in 1958. He won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in 1981. 

Bernard Stanley Morgan

1959-10-10

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black and white photograph

still image

acetate negative