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Shoemaker Rides 300th Winner of 1953 Season Becomes Only Jockey to Pilot That Many Winners Three Times DEL MAR, Calif., Aug. 29. Jockey Willie Shoemaker, well on his way to his second national riding championship, began Saturdays operations with a total of 300 winners for the year and if he maintains the present clip he will set a worlds record of 400 for a 12-month period before the end of 1953. Shoemaker now is the only rider in racing history ever to .have ridden 300 or more winners in a single season three times. Shoemaker rode 388 winners in 1950 and, with Joe Culmone, tied the record Walter Miller established in 1906, and last year he handled 315 successful mounts. Anthony DeSpirito last year set a new mark of 390 winners. The little Texas horseman, through Friday, now has a lifetime record of 1,479 winning mounts, a total he has compiled since 1949. After riding the winners of both ends of the Daily Double, Breezing Bebe and Rav-ialla, Shoemaker scored with Play Hooky in the fifth race and then, in Fridays closing event, he registered his 300th success of the year by bringing home Royal Vista. On dismounting from Royal Vista, Alfred Hart, president of Del Mar, presented Shoemaker with a trophy commemorating his 300th winner. After the close of the Del Mar season, Shoemaker is expected to ply his profession at Golden Gate Fields six days a week and may fly to Las Vegas to pick up a few mounts on Sundays.
