Mike Smith Highlights

As of July 21, 2016

• $276,117,486 in Earnings (4^th All-time)

• 32554 Starts

• 5342 Wins

• 4559 2^nd Place

• 4152 3^rd Place

• 43% in top 3 finishes

•  22 Breeders’ Cup Wins – All-time Leader at the Breeders’ Cup

• 7 Riding titles at Belmont Park

• 5 Riding titles at Aqueduct

• 3 Riding titles at Saratoga

• 4 Triple Crown Wins –  Kentucky Derby (1) Preakness (1) and Belmont Stakes (2)

• 2ND 3 TIMES IN KENTUCKY DERBY

• 1976 – Began racing horses at bush tracks in his native New Mexico at age 11.

• 1982 – Took out a jockey’s license at age 16 and rode Forever Man to his first winner at

  Santa Fe Downs.

• 1991 – Became one of the few American jockeys to win a European classic by claiming

  victory in the Irish 2,000 Guineas aboard Fourstars Allstar.

• 1992   Won his first Breeders’ Cup in the Breeders’ Cup Mile aboard Lure.

• 1993 – Set a North American record for stakes wins in a year with 62.

• 1993 – Won his first Preakness Stakes aboard Prairie Bayou and a successful defense of

  the Breeders’ Cup Mile aboard Lure.

• 1993 – Won his first Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in American thoroughbred horse

  racing.

• 1994 – Broke his own record for stakes wins with 68, 20 of them Grade I races.

• 1994 – Won the first every  ESPY– Top Thoroughbred Horse Racing Jockey.

• 1994 – Won his second Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey.

• 1994 – Awarded the Mike Venezia Memorial Award by the New York Racing Association to

  honor given a jockey who “exemplifies extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship”.

• 1998 -Two major spills suffering major injuries including breaking two vertebrae in his back

  that required him wearing a body cast for several months. He came back six months

  after the fall.

• 2000 – Presented the George Woolf Memorial Award  by Santa Anita Park in Arcadia,

  California as the thoroughbred horse racing jock in North American who demonstrates

  high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.

• 2003 – Inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

• 2005 – Rode 50–1 longshot Giacomo to his first victory in the Kentucky Derby.

• 2008 – 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.

• 2009 – Returned to the Breeders’ Cup with Zenyatta, this time to capture the Breeders’ Cup
  Classic.Smith rode 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.

• 2009 – Became the all-time leader for most Breeders’ Cup wins with 17 after capturing the  Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic on Royal Delta.

• 2009 – One of the jockeys featured in Animal Planet’s 2009 reality documentary, Jockeys.

• 2009 – Award the Big Sport of Turfdom Award as part of Team Zenyatta, which is given

  annually by the Turf Publicists of America to a person or group who enhances

  coverage of Thoroughbred racing through cooperation with the media and

  Thoroughbred racing publicists.

• 2010 – Award the Big Sport of Turfdom Award as a individual.

• 2010 – Won his first Belmont Stakes aboard Drosselmeyer.

• 2012 – April 7^th Earned the 5,000th victory of his career when he teamed with 2011 sprint

  champion Amazombie to capture the $150,000 Potrero Grande Stakes (gr. II) at

  Santa Anita Park.

• 2013 – Won his second Belmont Stakes aboard Palace Malice.

• 2014 – Inducted into the New Mexico Sports Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2013.

• 2015 – Won his 22nd^t Breeders Cup race aboard Songbird in The 14 Hands Winery Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and finished second to American Pharoah aboard Effinex in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.