Pat Day
Encyclopedia
- For Melvin "Pat" Day the New ZealandNew ZealandNew Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
artist see Melvin DayMelvin DayMelvin "Pat" Day, CNZM is a New Zealand artist and art historian.Day was born in Hamilton, New Zealand. At the age of eleven, Day began Saturday morning classes at Elam School of Art, University of Auckland, under the tuteleage of Archie Fisher, John Weeks, Lois White and Ida Eise...
Patrick Alan "Pat" Day (born October 13, 1953 in Brush, Colorado
Brush, Colorado
The City of Brush is a Statutory City located in Morgan County, Colorado, United States. The population was 5,117 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Brush is located at ....
) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jockey
Jockey
A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...
. He is a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey
Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey
The Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey is an American thoroughbred horse racing honor for jockeys first awarded in 1971. Part of the Eclipse Awards program, it is awarded annually....
and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...
in 1991. Day also received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award
George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award
The George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award has been presented by Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, annually since 1950 to the thoroughbred horse racing jockey in North America who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.The award was created...
in 1985, given annually to a North American jockey who demonstrates the highest standards of professional and personal conduct. In 1995, he was voted the Mike Venezia Memorial Award
Mike Venezia Memorial Award
Mike Venezia Memorial Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor given annually by the New York Racing Association to honor a jockeys who exemplifies extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship...
for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship".
Day has ridden winners of U.S. Triple Crown
Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
The Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing consists of three races for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses. Winning all three of these Thoroughbred horse races is considered the greatest accomplishment of a Thoroughbred racehorse...
races nine times. Day was quoted in a recent interview on the TVG Network
TVG Network
TVG Network is an American specialty channel dedicated to horse racing. The company broadcasts from Los Angeles, California and is available in the United States on Dish Network and DirecTV as well as select cable companies...
's "Legends" program that Easy Goer
Easy Goer
Easy Goer was an American Champion Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse, famous for earning American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honors in 1988, and defeating 1989 American Horse of the Year Sunday Silence in the Belmont Stakes by 8 lengths. The victory deprived Sunday Silence of the Triple Crown...
was the best horse he ever rode in his career. In 1999 he rode Menifee
Menifee
Menifee is an American Thoroughbred racehorse that competed in the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in 1999. His rivalry with Triple Crown contender Charismatic was compared at times with the rivalry between 1978 contenders Affirmed and Alydar, who won and placed in all three races that year....
, who placed directly behind Charismatic
Charismatic (horse)
Charismatic is a stallion Thoroughbred horse, and is known as one of the closest challengers to the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing since the last winner, Affirmed, accomplished the feat in 1978. He was trained by D. Wayne Lukas, and famously ridden in the Triple Crown races by Chris Antley...
in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. Prior to the Belmont Stakes, where Menifee failed to place in the top three and Charismatic broke down in the final furlong, their rivalry was compared to that of Affirmed
Affirmed
Affirmed was an American Thoroughbred racehorse who was the eleventh and most recent winner of the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing...
and Alydar
Alydar
Alydar was a chestnut colt and an American thoroughbred race horse who was most famous for finishing a close second to Affirmed in all three races of the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a feat not achieved before or repeated since.-Racing career:Trained by John M...
in 1978.
In 1991, Pat Day won the Canadian Triple Crown
Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing
The Canadian Triple Crown is a series of three Thoroughbred horse races run annually in Canada which is open to three-year-old horses foaled in Canada...
and the Breeders' Cup Distaff
Breeders' Cup Distaff
The Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic is a Weight for Age Thoroughbred horse race for fillies and mares, 3 years old and up. Known as the Breeders' Cup Distaff from its inception in 1984 through 2007, it is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders'...
aboard the future Hall of Fame filly Dance Smartly
Dance Smartly
Dance Smartly was a Champion Thoroughbred Canadian and U.S. Hall of Fame racemare who went undefeated in 1991 while winning the Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing and becoming the first horse bred in Canada to ever win a Breeders' Cup race.Bred in Ontario by Sam-Son Farm, the bay mare...
. He is the only jockey to have ridden at least one mount in each of the first 20 Breeders' Cup
Breeders' Cup
The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Thoroughbred horse races, most but not all Grade I, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, it expanded to two days. The location...
s, and ranks second all-time in Breeders' Cup winners, with 12.
Day is also the all-time leading rider at Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs
Churchill Downs, located in Central Avenue in south Louisville, Kentucky, United States, is a Thoroughbred racetrack most famous for hosting the Kentucky Derby annually. It officially opened in 1875, and held the first Kentucky Derby and the first Kentucky Oaks in the same year. Churchill Downs...
and Keeneland Race Course
Keeneland
Keeneland is a Thoroughbred horse racing facility and sales complex in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. Operated by the Keeneland Association, Inc., it is also known for its reference library on the sport, which contains more than 10,000 volumes, an extensive videocassette collection, and a substantial...
, the two largest tracks in his adopted home state of Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. At the Downs, Day was often so dominant that veteran horseplayers would complain — bettors would often wager so much money on horses with Day in the saddle that the payoff odds would decline.
In 1989, he set a North American record when he won eight of nine mounts in a single day at Arlington Park
Arlington Park
Arlington Park is a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Horse racing in the Chicago region has been a popular sport since the early days of the city in the 1830s, and at one time Chicago had more horse racing tracks than any other major metropolitan area...
.
Early in his career, he had serious substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
problems with both drugs and alcohol, but became a born-again Christian in the early 1980s. He has been involved with the Race Track Chaplaincy of America since his conversion, and is currently the racing industry's representative on the board of that organization.
After undergoing hip surgery that forced him to miss the Derby for the first time in 21 years, Day announced his retirement on August 3, 2005 after a 32-year career that saw him ride 8,804 winners, fourth on the all-time list, and set a North American record for prize money won, with his mounts earning nearly USD
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
298 million. He said he would retire and commit the rest of his life purely to spreading the Gospel.
Day and his family reside in the Lake Forest subdivision in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
.
Lil E. Tee
Lil E. Tee
Lil E. Tee was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who in 1992 scored one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Kentucky Derby.-Background:...
was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who in 1992 scored one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Kentucky Derby. His jockey was Pat Day; This was Pat Day's first and only Kentucky Derby victory.
External links
Pat Day will appear on Sunday, October 5, 2008 at Philadelphia Park racetrack.