Winning Ponies

Hall of Fame rider Pat Day will join us in our first segment. The inspiring reinsman won 12 breeders’ Cup events, 4 Classics and 3 Distaffs during his storied career. In retrospect even Day himself is in awe how things came together in his life. “I came from an area where there was no horse racing. I knew nothing about the great sport of horse racing,” said the native of Brush, Colo. “I was an absolute natural. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just doing it.” Day earned his first victory on July 29, 1973 at Prescott Downs in Arizona, never imagining he would be a dominant figure in the game by the following decade. But he was, sweeping Eclipse Awards as the leading rider in North America in 1984, 1986, 1987, and1991. When Day retired on Aug. 4, 2005, he had earned a record $297,912,019. He ranked fourth in victories with 8,803. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1991. Not one to sit on his laurels ,he is as busier out of the saddle now, than when he was riding, as he