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During the 1940s the glamour jockeys in the United States were Eddie Arcaro, Johnny Longden, George Woolf and Ted Atkinson, a Toronto-born rider who twice led all jockeys in both races won and money earnings in North America.

Atkinson, who didn't get his first ride until he was 21, rode from 1938 to 1959. In 1944 he led the nation's jockeys with 287 wins and was leader again in 1946, when he became the first jockey whose mounts earned more than $1 million in a year. After that season he signed on as the contract rider for the famed Greentree Stable, the outfit he started his career with as an apprentice. However, he left Greentree because only experienced riders were permitted to ride in competition. When he retired his accomplishments included 3,795 victories and an incredible win percentage of 16 against the best jockeys at tracks in New York, California, Illinois, Kentucky, New England and Maryland. His feats earned him induction into the U.S. Hall of Fame at Saratoga, N.Y., and was the 1957 recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award.

Publicized in the U.S. press as "the great Canadian rider", Atkinson rode All British in the 1948 King's Plate at Woodbine Park. He also often rode Canadian-owned and trained horses at U.S. tracks. His greatest mounts were Hall of Famers Tom Fool, Devil Diver, Nashua and Gallorette along with Capot, which won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes after finishing second in the 1948 Kentucky Derby, Olympia, Hill Gail, One Hitter and War Relic. It was War Relic who elevated Atkinson into the public's eye in 1941 when he captured the Massachusetts Handicap and the famous Narragansett Special, defeating Eddie Arcaro and Triple Crown winner Whirlaway. Atkinson considered Tom Fool as the best horse he ever rode, earning Horse Of The Year honors in 1953 after winning the Handicap Triple Crown - the Metropolitan, Suburban and Brooklyn Handicaps. He also rode Hall of Fame superstar Bold Ruler, the sire of Secretariat, in winning the Youthful and Bahamas Stakes, and champion fillies Busher, High Voltage and Misty Morn.

Born June 17, 1916, in Toronto, his family moved to the States when he was three. During the Depression he went to New York and was working for $8 a week loading and labelling bottles at a chemical plant. A truck driver advised the youngster that "with your build and size I'd get a job as a jockey" and gave him the name of the head exercise rider at Greentree Stable in nearby New Jersey. He left Greentree and rode his first winner at Beulah Park, Ohio. In 1940 he moved to the New England circuit and it wasn't long before the big stables in New York were beckoning.

During his legendary career Atkinson was dubbed "The Slasher" by New York sportswriters because of his use of the whip. It was said he could transfer his whip from one hand to the other better than any other living jockey. The sobriquet, however, annoyed Atkinson, who was considered one of the true gentlemen in racing. His granddaughter, Caton Bredar, an analyst and host for thoroughbred racing on TVG Network, said "The nickname referred to my grandfather's style, which was straight-armed and very distinctive. Although contrary to popular opinion, it was no more abusive, or severe, than the most typical style of hitting a horse. He's a very gentle man and has a high regard for nature and all living things." Another nickname hung on Atkinson was "The Professor" for his love of reading between races.

The following article appeared in The Globe and Mail shortly after his death on May 5, 2005. It was written by Danny Gallagher.

As one of the glamour jockeys of his generation, Ted Atkinson was undeservedly known as The Slasher. For a rider who never got on a horse until he was 18, it was a sobriquet he rejected but one which emerged out of a signature whipping style and a knack for getting the most out of his mounts.

Mr. Atkinson was a token Canadian, born in Toronto, but he didn't hang around for long -- three years to be exact. His father Fred had moved to Canada from his native England to work as a glass blower in a Toronto factory and then in 1919, moved again when recruited by Corning Glass in Corning, N.Y.

Ted Atkinson was gifted academically and was valedictorian of his graduating class in high school at Corning Free Academy and his desire was to enter Annapolis Naval Academy in Maryland, but at 5-foot-3, he didn't meet the height requirements. He faced the same sobering rejection when he tried to become a forester.

During the Depression, he toiled at different jobs, including tree planting as part of a U.S. federal program that emphasized work in national parks. He also worked for $8-per-week loading and labelling bottles at a chemical plant. It was there that a truck driver remarked, "With your build and size, I'd get a job as a jockey" and gave him the name of a contact at Greentree Stable in New Jersey. Even though he had never ridden a horse, the introduction led to a job as an exercise rider. By all accounts, he practised mounting by swinging his legs over bales of hay. Later, he served an apprenticeship as a rider in both Cuba and England and by the time he finally mounted a horse in an actual race he was 21 -- mature for a jockey.

Mr. Atkinson rode his first winner at Beulah Park in Columbus, Ohio, on May 18, 1938. A trainer had asked him to ride a horse called Musical Jack. The jockey, who was known as The Professor, for his fondness for reading between races, set aside his copy of Hamlet long enough to take the 2-1 favourite to a first-place finish.

By the time Mr. Atkinson returned from Ohio, the big stables in New York were pursuing him, especially after he rode his first stakes winner in the Governor's Handicap at Suffolk Downs in Boston aboard Dunade. But it was in 1941 that a long-shot renegade named War Relic nudged Mr. Atkinson into the limelight by capturing the Massachusetts Handicap and the Narragansett Special.

War Relic had a reputation for being arrogant and nasty. In fact, he had even killed one of his handlers. Yet, Mr. Atkinson's patience, diplomacy and penchant for working with long shots, enabled him to make a winner out of the horse. "My dad never expected any problems with War Relic and he had no problems with War Relic," said his son Mark Atkinson. The mount proved to be Ted Atkinson's all-time favourite horse.

In 1944, Mr. Atkinson led U.S. jockeys with 287 wins and, after sorting through a maze of big-stable offers, returned to Greentree Stable as a contract rider. In 1946, he was leader again when he became the first jockey to ride horses that earned more than $1-million in a year.

Mr. Atkinson was known by the U.S. media as "the great Canadian rider" who returned home to compete in the King's Plate in Toronto on May 24, 1948. He rode All British, a bay gelding, finishing 13th in a field of 16 that saw Last Mark win. All British had won the Plate Trial Stakes the week before and went off at odds of $3.30 to $1 and was second favourite in the field.

The race chart said All British ran close to the lead but faltered badly in the backstretch when the pace quickened. In an article in the June of 1948 issue of Canadian Horse, Mr. Atkinson said All British "just stopped.'' That same year, Capot, with Mr. Atkinson aboard, almost won the U.S. Triple Crown. Capot finished second in the Kentucky Derby and then captured the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes.

Mr. Atkinson was the leading rider in New York 11 times, a record that still stands, and much of his success came in the 1950s when his mounts included superstar Tom's Fool. He was also atop such champions as Hall of Fame superstar Bold Ruler, Coaltown, Devil Diver, Misty Morn, Gallorette and Nashua but Tom's Fool was the best. "None of the other horses I ever rode, on their best days, could measure up with him," he once told Blood Horse magazine.

Mr. Atkinson's whipping style provided fodder for debate and criticism in the media. The belief was that because he held the whip straight-armed and high above him, the horses were hit in an unduly abusive manner. Thus, the moniker The Slasher, was something he detested.

"There was no sting," he told the London Evening Standard in 1993. "I never hit a horse just to beat it out of him, but merely to impress on him the urgency of the situation. I can't ever recall leaving a welt, and I never had a trainer complain that I had abused his horse."

In fact, the end of his whips were always feathered.

"He won on horses that hadn't won in the past and the reputation is that he had to hit horses harder than usual," his son Mark said. "He held the whip high up and brought it down and there was a popping noise. He loved horses and all animals. He had a reputation that he never gave up on a horse. If the horse wasn't going to win, he'd try to get second or third and that made him popular with the fans.''

H. Allen Jerkens, a trainer who was inducted in the Hall of Fame and who knew Mr. Atkinson told the New York Times the nickname was unfortunate. "He never put a mark on a horse. He had a different way of whipping."'

Jim Gaffney, an exercise rider who knew Mr. Atkinson in his racing days, told Blood Horse magazine that Mr. Atkinson was a "very smart, intelligent rider . . . He could gauge the way a horse was running and was a good judge of pace."

Two years before he retired at age 43, Mr. Atkinson was inducted into the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga, N.Y. He was inducted into the Canadian equivalent in 2002 and was, indeed, the first, great jockey in Canada's history. Mr. Atkinson was held in such esteem that a story in Blood Horse in 1954 went like this, "Theodore Francis Atkinson, the Lord Chesterfield of the jockey ranks, came under the wire first aboard the heavily favoured Devastation in the third race at Aqueduct, N.Y."

When he finally retired, his accomplishments included 3,795 victories in 23,661 mounts, collecting what was considered an excellent win percentage of 16. He later became a racing official and steward in both New York and Illinois ovals. "He was proud of that job, probably more proud of that than when he was a jockey," his son said.

Ted Atkinson was born June 17, 1916 in Toronto. He died in his sleep May 5 in Beaverdam, Va., after a long illness related to cancer and a series of strokes. He was 88.

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