At an age when many people retire and collect Social Security, Roy Brooks is still in the saddle and currently riding at Zia Park in Hobbs, NM. So far in 2006, the 65-year-old jockey is ranked 26th nationally among Quarter Horse jockeys, with 55 wins and $750,000 in 403 starts.
On Saturday, October 7, Brooks will be mounted on Bullions N Garters, a favorite in the Lubbock Stakes at Zia Park. The 5-year-old mare is the winner of 17 races, including three stakes wins from six starts in 2006 with Brooks aboard.
Brooks began his career in 1966, at a Quarter Horse track in Miami, OK. Over the years, the Blanchard, OK native has broken both of his ankles, his collarbone, and his left leg, but he has always bounced back.
“It’s not really getting anymore difficult,” he told the Tulsa World in July, while he was riding at Prairie Meadows. “It seems to be just as easy as it was last year and the year before and the year before.”
Brooks is the oldest, active jockey in the nation with 40 consecutive years on the job.
In 2000, at 66, Ray York, who rode 1954 Kentucky Derby champion Determine, made a one-day comeback to ride in a race at Santa Anita, as the nations’ oldest jockey. York, who had officially retired in 1985, finished second-to-last in an 11-horse field.
On May 3, 2006, Ira Hanford, the oldest living jockey to have won the Kentucky Derby, traveled from his home in Ocala, FL to Churchill Downs to revisit the scene of his victory. It was his first trip to the famous track in 70 years.
Hanford was an 18-year-old apprentice rider in 1936, when he booted home 20-1 long shot Bold Venture, trained by Max Hirsch for King Ranch. Because of a rough start, Hanford and another rider were suspended from racing for two weeks, and Hanford missed the call on Bold Venture in the Preakness Stakes.
It was George Wolff who rode Bold Venture to victory in the Preakness. Hanford continued riding for 17 more years – he even rode a then unknown named Seabiscuit