Arthur Pickens

Arthur Pickens (July 8, 1888 – January 16, 1944) was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the most prestigious race in both the United States and Canada.

Arthur Pickens
Arthur Pickens aboard Stone Street, May 5, 1908
OccupationJockey
BornJuly 8, 1888
Norwood, Ohio, United States
DiedJanuary 16, 1944
Career wins1,055
Major racing wins
Breeders' Stakes (1916)
Coronation Futurity Stakes (1916)
Long Beach Handicap (1917)
Tuckahoe Handicap (1919)
Yonkers Handicap (1919)
Grand National Handicap (1920)
D&C Handicap (1922)

American Classic Race wins:
Kentucky Derby (1908)
Canadian Classic Race wins:
King's Plate (1916)
Breeders' Stakes (1916)

Significant horses
Mandarin, Stone Street, The Finn

Pickens began his career working as an exercise rider in 1906. Two years later, nineteen-year-old Pickens became the youngest jockey to ever win the Kentucky Derby when he rode named Stone Street to victory over Bashford Manor Stable's heavy favorite Sir Cleges.[1] His age record stood for seventy years until Steve Cauthen won the 1978 running. In 1916 Pickens won two of the three races that would later be part of the Canadian Triple Crown series. His wins came aboard distiller Joseph Seagram's colt Mandarin in the 1916 Breeders' Stakes and in Canada's most prestigious race, the King's Plate.[2] That year he also won the Coronation Futurity Stakes for the Seagram Stable.

Among his other accomplishments in racing, on May 28, 1918, he rode four winners at Prospect Park Fair Grounds on Coney Island, New York.[3] In winters he rode at Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba, where in 1924 he was one of the track's top jockeys.[4]

Arthur Pickens died at age 55 in Maysville, Kentucky, where he and his wife Lillian Webster Pickens made their home. He is buried in the Maysville Cemetery.[5]

In 2008, Raymond H. Davis of Rockville, Maryland, a second cousin of Arthur Pickens, published his biography titled Remembering Arthur Pickens.[6]

References
  1. "1908 - 2017 Kentucky Derby & Oaks - May 5 and 6, 2017 - Tickets, Events, News". kentuckyderby.com. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  2. "King's Plate History at Woodbine Entertainment". Archived from the original on June 14, 2009. Retrieved February 26, 2011.
  3. "archives - baltimoresun.com - PICKENS HAS BIG DAY". pqarchiver.com. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  4. "$173,600 Paid Out at Havana Pickens Leads the Jockeys". January 16, 1924. Retrieved December 8, 2016 – via NYTimes.com.
  5. "Arthur Pickens (1888 - 1944) - Find A Grave Memorial". findagrave.com. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  6. TONCRAY, MARLA. "Remembering Arthur Pickens". maysville-online.com. Archived from the original on September 13, 2012. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
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