Thoroughbred › Jockeys

Throughout most of thoroughbred racing Lady Luck plays a major role. Her role has been most apparent in the riding career of Calgary native William "Smokey" Saunders, a skillful jockey who could ride with--and--beat the best in the world.

Saunders enjoyed a career that stretched from 1932 to 1950. But before becoming a rider he could most often be found around the barns in Calgary, walking hots and generally attending to the thoroughbred stabled in southern Alberta.

By 1932 he began riding around Calgary and other western ovals, but it wasn't until 1933 that he broke his maiden at Tanforan in California. From that point he moved rapidly up the ladder under the watchful eyes of master horseman Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons. Mr. Fitz hired Saunders to ride horses for the Phipps Stable and for Belair Stud.

It was in 1935 while riding for Belair Stud that the 20-year-old Saunders achieved his greatest moment in racing. Assigned to ride Omaha, Saunders piloted the horse to wins in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes to sweep the Triple Crown races. That distinction of being the youngest to ever win the Triple Crown stood up until 1978 when 18-year-old Steve Cauthen captured the three classics for three-year-olds.

Born in Bozeman, Mont., but raised in Alberta, the teenaged rider had the skills to curtail Omaha's nasty trait of "savaging" horses that bumped or brushed him. A son of Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox, Omaha attempted to bite a horse if it got too close recalled Saunders years later.

Shortly afterwards Saunders became the first string rider for Hal Price Headley, riding such horses as Whooper, Tread Avon and Plucky Play. But by the time World War II began the Calgary rider had blossomed to 135 pounds, and was through as a rider. He spent four and a half years in the U.S. Army, much of it in the South Pacific.

Lady Luck of sorts was with him throughout that period when he emerged from the war unscathed except for a bout with malaria which left him several pounds lighter. So the end of the war marked the beginning of a second riding career for Saunders, a career climaxed by a brilliant ride aboard Bovar to win the 1948 Louisiana Derby.

In later years Saunders has served as a racing official at several American tracks, among them Washington Park, Hawthorne Park, Garden State, Tropical Park, Hialeah and Gulfstream.

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