Winning Half-Pint

Jockey Willie Shoemaker is usually a highly relaxed performer; he hunches up over his mount's neck and almost seems to let matters take their course. But, riding a colt named The Hoop last week, Willie was in a notable hurry. At the break from the barrier he got his horse off to a quick lead; when two other horses threatened to overtake him, Willie quickly went to the whip, drove hard all the way to the finish. The Hoop won by a neck, and the crowd at California's Golden Gate Fields sent up a roar. The roar was not for The Hoop but for Willie, the winningest jockey in history, and for his record-breaking 391st victory this season.

Part of Willie Shoemaker's secret of success is keeping busy (a phenomenal 1,364 mounts so far this year). At 22, he has been riding for only 4½ years, and such veterans as Eddie Arcaro and Ted Atkinson are more in demand for the big stakes. But no ordinary jockey could keep as winningly busy as Willie does, and his merits are fully appreciated by his peers. Arcaro says flatly that Willie already ranks with "the greatest in the country." Sharp-eyed old Earl Sande also ranks Willie with the best, and adds that if Arcaro himself "has anything on him, it might be that he is bigger and a bit stronger." For among the pint-sized fraternity of jockeys, sinewy Willie Shoemaker is a half-pint (4 ft.11 in., 96 Ibs.) who eats what he wants, never has to worry, as most of his fellow workers do, about putting on weight.

Willie, ordinarily a monosyllabic mumbler when it comes to talking about himself, once broke into a fairly long speech to explain his way with horses: "I'm trying to save the horse all the time—and hold his run for when he needs it. I try to break fast, but after that I don't mind the others,passing me, as long as my horse has a run left. Most of all, I like to sit comfortable on a horse. And I like to have the horse run comfortable under me."

By keeping horses comfortable—and still winning—Willie has become a great favorite among trainers, who prefer to have their horses finish with some breath left. Trainers sometimes complain that Willie seldom seems to be paying attention to their pre-race instructions, but they admit that, on the track, Willie usually follows instructions to the letter.

Such skills have brought him due reward. In the 4½ years since he rode his first winner, Texas-born Willie, who now prefers California, has booted home 1,571 winners, won more than $5,000,000 in purses. At a jockey's standard 10%, he can well afford his Cadillac, his de luxe trailer, where his wife does the housekeeping when Willie is on the road, and his small apartment in Arcadia. Indeed, he owns the apartment house.