Sport: Out of the Saddle

Tiny Ted Atkinson was 20 years old and making little progress as a $35-a-week shipping clerk in a Brooklyn chemical plant when a truck driver friend suggested that his build (5 ft. 2 in., 100 Ibs.) was ideal for a jockey. Ted got a job with the Whitneys' Greentree Stable as a stableboy, watered horses and broke yearlings while he learned about racing. On May 18, 1938, at Beulah Park in Ohio, he rode his first winner, Musical Jack. Said Ted afterward: "Musical Jack did all his own winning. I was just along for the ride. I had him in every pocket but my own, and he still came on to win. That horse looked at me with disgust when I got down after the race."

Atkinson quickly learned better, graduated from the "leaky roof" circuit to the big time, became one of the finest riders in racing, was national jockey champion in 1944 and 1946. Nicknamed "the slasher" for his enthusiastic use of the whip, the articulate Atkinson once explained why he had given the great Tom Fool such a tanning during his victorious ride in the Suburban Handicap in 1953: "The idea was not to beat him but to impress him with the urgency of the situation." In his 21-year career Ted booted home 3,795 winners, *won a healthy $17,449,360 in purses.

Last year a sacroiliac condition began to bother Atkinson. Three times in the last eight months he had to give up his mounts and rest. Fortnight ago at Florida's Tropical Park, the pain became unbearable. Last week, at 42, on the advice of his physician, he retired. Said he: "I guess I've been around the world a couple of times on horseback in the afternoon. Maybe that's enough."