Toronto, ON – Hall of Fame jockey Sandy Hawley captured The Living Legends Race, Saturday at Santa Anita Park.
Hawley, aboard favoured Tribal Chief, won by 6 ½ lengths in a time of 1:21.03. The son of Tribal Rule paid $7.80, $4 and $3.20 across the board.
Held in conjunction with racing’s new Legends on Tour as well as the Breeders’ Cup, Hall of Fame jockeys that competed in Santa Anita’s unprecedented race were, in descending order of age: Angel Cordero Jr., 65; Jacinto Vasquez, 64; Sandy Hawley, 59; Pat Day, 55; Chris McCarron, 53; Jerry Bailey, 51; Gary Stevens, 45, and Julie Krone, 45. Their average age is 55.
The allowance/optional claiming event was contested at seven furlongs. Each rider’s mount, a California-bred, was selected by draw. Hawley provided the elite group with its 49,164 combined victory while increasing the number of total mounts by eight to 261,854.
It was the 6,450 win of Hawley’s illustrious career.
A native of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, Hawley rode for 31 years until his retirement on July 1, 1998.
After apprenticing in Canada with 230 winners in 1969, he moved to the U.S. where he led all jockeys in victories in 1970, 1972, 1973 and 1976.
Hawley became the first jockey to ever win 500 races * 515 — during a single year in 1973 when breaking Bill Shoemaker’s record. He earned the Eclipse Award in 1976 setting an all-time money winning record for a single year.
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