Mike E. Smith

32

Mike E. Smith : biography

August 10, 1965 –

In 1994, he was voted the Mike Venezia Memorial Award for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship".

The dangers of Smith’s profession became evident in 1998, when he suffered major injuries in two separate spills. A broken shoulder in March took him out of action for two months. Then, in August, while leading the Saratoga meeting, he broke two vertebrae in his back, requiring him to wear a body cast for several months. He came back six months after the fall.

In 2000, he moved his home base from New York to Southern California. That year he was voted the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award that honors a rider whose career and personal conduct exemplifies the very best example of participants in the sport of thoroughbred racing.

In 2002 he served as the regular rider for his second Horse of the Year, Azeri. He rode Azeri to a win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, and also rode Vindication to a win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

In 2005, he rode 50–1 longshot Giacomo to victory in the Kentucky Derby. The win, Smith’s first in the Derby, was something of a vindication for him. He was aboard Giacomo’s sire Holy Bull, the 2–1 favorite in the 1994 Derby, but could finish only 12th after Holy Bull was bumped coming out of the starting gate.

In 2008, he added two more Breeders’ Cup victories first in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with Stardom Bound, and with the then 4-year-old Zenyatta in the Ladies’ Classic. A year later, Smith returned to the Breeders’ Cup with Zenyatta, this time to capture the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Smith partnered Zenyatta to 16 straight victories of a 19-for-20 career that saw her become the only horse to win two different Breeders’ Cup races, and the richest female racehorse with the earnings of $7,304,580.

After capturing the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic on Royal Delta, Smith became the all time leader for most Breeders’ Cup wins, with 17.

Smith was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003.

Smith is one of the jockeys featured in Animal Planet’s 2009 reality documentary, Jockeys.

Mike Smith earned the 5,000th victory of his Hall of Fame career when he teamed with 2011 sprint champion Amazombie to capture the $150,000 Potrero Grande Stakes (gr. II) at Santa Anita Park on April 7, 2012.http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/68763/smith-teams-with-amazombie-for-win-no-5000