Bill Hartack - A Controversial, Provocative and Great Jockey

American jockey William "Bill" John Hartack, Jr., (1932-2007) was characterized by the media as rude, arrogant, provocative, controversial, outspoken and a great jockey. Looking back on Hartack, none of it was as black and white as that, other than his talent and masterful command of a horse.

At 19, he won his first race, and seven years later, following a meteoric rise to prominence in the irons, he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame. Hartack won the Kentucky Derby five times, a record shared with Hall of Fame jockey Eddie Arcaro, and led the nation's jockey standings in earnings on two occasions, four times in number of races won. He'd been aboard Northern Dancer, Kelso, and Round Table, among other great thoroughbreds. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine, twice on Sports Illustrated's cover.

Following Hartack's retirement from riding, I worked with him for a time when he was a racing official, and I could see why the media had conflicted feelings about him. His intelligence was intimidating, and he was curt with any journalist who interrupted his work on a race day, for example, or any journalist who'd otherwise been rude to him.

Shortly before a race meeting in Southern California, I picked him up at LAX, and we went out to dinner before he crashed on a sofa at my place. Hartack made several memorable observations over dinner.

'You use your speed early, or you use your speed late.' This referred to the 1964 Kentucky Derby, when he piloted Northern Dancer from well off the pace to win in track record time.

'I never had a good day at the race track.' Hartack's hatred of losing was beyond description. If he had six mounts and won on five of them, the day was ruined.

His most provocative observation during dinner arrived late: 'The public is an idiot.' As I grow older, and consider the popular vote in several recent elections in America, I begin to see the wisdom in this.

But of course, he was referring to the racing public, and the story he told to support his statement goes back to Maryland's Laurel Race Course, now Laurel Park, when he was a young rider and had a mount on a mare he'd ridden several times before, winning on one occasion.

She was sore in the post parade, but then, she'd been that way in times past and had warmed up out of her soreness in a gallop before reaching the starting gate. Not this time, however. An odds-on favorite, the mare was still sore at the gate. Believing it was unfair to the betting public if she started, unfair to the mare, unfair to the owner and trainer, Hartack refused to ride.

There was a heated exchange with the racing stewards on a walkie talkie, and in the end, an outrider escorted Hartack and the mare back to the saddling paddock for another rider. When this was announced over the PA, the fans booed and called Hartack names. Walking toward the jockey's room, he removed his silks and passed them to the replacement rider. The rider asked if the mare was all right - a question Hartack left hanging while he continued in silence to the room, the answer being obvious under the circumstances.

The fans cheered the new rider wildly as the mare made her way to the starting gate once more. After she'd run terribly, finishing out of the money, and was returned to the stands to be unsaddled, the crowd booed the replacement rider something awful. When Hartack came out on his mount for the next race, the fans applauded and cheered him as passionately as they'd earlier jeered him.

Later on, Hartack had a similar experience when he took off a horse at the gate in Florida, and that may have cemented his attitude toward a public whose betting interests he tried to protect. His opinions were as strong as they come, true, but above all, he was a man of principle and conscience, a man of spotless integrity.

A loner, he didn't have many friends, and his death from heart disease came to him alone in a cabin on a hunting trip in Texas. He didn't have a wife or children. His mother died when he was young, and although the poor relationship he'd had with his father improved greatly over time - Bill had bought him a home and enabled him to retire from work in a Pennsylvania coal mine - his father had passed away, and he wasn't close to his two sisters. When he died, he had little money and no permanent residence.

The person who owned the Texas cabin, Garrett Condra, was one of Hartack's friends. Condra and his family had several cemetery plots available in Iberia, Missouri, and William John Hartack, Jr., is buried in one of them. In a line inscribed on Hartack's gravestone, the late rider's friend phrased his tribute: 'Dedicated to Honesty and Integrity in Racing.'

Don Walters is the author of the Amazon.com eBooks The Woman Who Loved Horses and Zoe, among other works. He grew up with horses in Kentucky, where he makes his home today. Visit his website with a click here for horse-related topics and links for connecting to other readers & writers.

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Athol George Mulley: Jockey Great

The great jockeys of Australian horse racing history have one experience in common: during their careers, they all had the benefit of teaming up with one extraordinary thoroughbred who not only contributed to their win records, but also earned them quality rides that further added to their accomplishments.

At most, however, such a thoroughbred lasts several years, where the great jockeys' careers span multiple decades.

One fitting example of this claim, perhaps the most apt of all, would be described in any examination that focused on a hoop known as Athol George Mulley. He contributed the better part of 40 years of his life to the Australian turf, contributing all along the way, but he is best remembered for one remarkable time span between December 1945 and October 1946.

During that time he had the good fortune to sit astride one of the literal and figurative giants of all time, Bernborough. Together, Mulley and Bernborough reeled off 15 consecutive victories, in the process besting quality competitors such as Neville Sellwood and George Moore and Phar Lap. The partnership came to an unceremonious conclusion when the pair failed to place in the 1946 Caulfield Cup. Even though Bernborough by this time had developed a reputation sufficient to result in his being allotted a huge weight, and still managed to run a close fifth, Mulley was replaced by Billy Briscoe.

Bernborough's credentials are unassailable, so much so that he was granted induction into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame with the inaugural group of horses that included Phar Lap, Carbine, Tulloch and Kingston Town. Mulley himself was to say of Bernborough, "He's a freak. Once he starts to wind up nothing can stop him." One of Phar Lap's strappers, Tommy Woodcock, said, "A great horse. A bulldog in a finish and too brilliant for Phar Lap in a sprint."

Mulley, too, has accomplishments that will substantiate any claim of his inclusion amongst Australia's great jockeys.

Perhaps most noteworthy of these are the two Sydney Jockeys' Premierships. He won it in the 1945/46 season, where he bested his nearest competitor by 15 wins, and again in 1960/61, which is remarkable for the longevity it represents.

He is also tied for second all-time winning-est jockey of the Golden Slipper Stakes. The first of these came in 1958 aboard Skyline, the next in 1960 astride Sky High and the final in 1964 aboard Eskimo Prince.

As is often the case with many professional athletes, jockeys being no exception, Mulley had a superstitious streak. He was known to wear an old singlet for luck beneath his racing colours and he always insisted on being the last to exit the jockeys' room before a race.

On the track, Mulley was known for riding with abandon, to the extent that journo Max Presnell said of him, "Mulley was a hair raiser, which beats some stereotype, programmed like a robot," speaking of less flamboyant jockeys.

He also was not above trying to gain a psychological edge and get into the heads of his fellow competitors. He frequently attempted to employ this technique on George Moore, perhaps his most bitter rival, to varying degrees of success. While he may have impeded Moore on one or more occasions, it may have backfired on others, with Roy Higgins maintaining that George Moore rode better when he was irritated.

When the verbal jousting was not sufficient to rattle Moore, Mulley was not above getting physical.

At a race meeting at Canterbury in 1967, shortly after Moore had returned from an overseas riding stint, along with bumping Moore and his mount during one of the events on the card, the Frank Underwood Stakes, Mulley tried to get under Moore's skin further by usurping Moore's locker in the jockeys' room.

The two had exchanged verbal hostilities earlier in the mounting yard which escalated to a fistfight when Moore discovered Mulley's equipment in his locker. According to Moore, Mulley had, "Queried my breeding," and uttered some derogatory remarks, "That were uncalled for in a room, particularly in front of little boys." According to one witness, Mulley was on the receiving end of a minimum of six punches from Moore, and both riders ended up being fined $200 for their lack of decorum.

Mulley had one famous run-in with the Flemington stewards. He was aboard 1956 Australian Cup favorite Cambridge when that horse failed to place. An investigation eventually resulted in Mulley being warned off, a ban that was lifted several months later.

He narrowly avoided another confrontation in that same race in 1961, when claiming illness, he gave up the ride on Dream King, who took the post at 33/1 odds and won by five lengths after running unplaced in his previous 10 events. Melbourne rails bookmaker Thomas Marney and Hollywood George Edser were some of the persons of interest on that occasion.

After 25 years in the saddle, Mulley spent the next 15 years as a trainer.

He died 12 March 2001 from Parkinson's disease.

The Athol Mulley trophy is named in his honour and is presented annually to the apprentice jockey who rides the most winners in a racing season at Royal Randwick.

To read more about Australian Horse Racing, Jockeys Premiership, Horse Racing Tips, Bookmakers, Racecourses and more, go to Pro Group Racing and receive your free E-Book on How to Win at Horse Racing.

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