view raw text
WILLIAM SHOEMAKER Shoemaker Striving for Second Derby Success SuccessWill Will Be Astride Gallant Man Guided Swaps to 1955 Victory VictoryCHURCHILL CHURCHILL DOWNS Louisville Ky May 3 Willie Shoemaker wholl be seek ¬ ing his second Kentucky Derby score to ¬ morrow with Gallant Man is rated as one the great jockeys of modern times and at 25 he is rapidly approaching the 3000 mark in lifetime winners winnersShoemaker Shoemaker lias had five Derby mounts winning with the California wonder colt Swaps in 1955 In his other efforts he was fifth with Count Flame in 1952 third with Invigorator in 1953 unplaced with Corre ¬ lation in 1954 and was twelfth last year with Terrang Shoemaker is a natural light ¬ weight and scales in at about 102 pounds He probably never will have any weight trouble an asset in riding career longevity longevityA A native of Fabens near El Paso Texas Shoemaker moved with his family to Cali ¬ fornia at about the age of 10 He became interested in racing through a schoolmate who knew a horseman and he figured be ¬ cause of his size he too could become a jockey As a foundation for a turf career he went to work on the Puente Los An ¬ geles County Farm of the late Tom Sim ¬ mons president of Hollywood Turf Club and when he felt he had the rudiments mastered appeared on the race track at Del Mar and asked for a job Trainer George Beeves gave him his first real as ¬ sist and got him Harry Silbert as an agent The Shoe rode his first winner on April 20 1949 at Golden Gate Fields on a horse called Shaf ter V Shoe was a success from the very start In 1955 he set a new riding record with 485 winners for the season seasonIn In his early years on a race track he was known as Silent Shoe but in recent sea ¬ sons he is while not gabby at least willing to talk freely He has become in fact a polished gentleman His evenness of tem ¬ per is legendary on a race track and vic ¬ tory and failure he treats the same He neither loses his temper when he loses nor shows elation when he scores in a biff stakes
