Eddie Arcaro

Arcaro was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on February 19, 1916.^[1] His parents, Pasquale and Josephine Arcaro, were Italian immigrants.^[5][6] His father worked as a taxicab driver and held other jobs while supporting the family.^[3][4] Arcaro was born prematurely and weighed about three pounds at birth. He remained small throughout childhood and grew to about 5 feet 2 inches.^[7][5]

The family later moved across the Ohio River to Newport, Kentucky, near Latonia Race Track.^[1][7] Arcaro wanted to play baseball and other team sports, but his size limited those opportunities.^[7] He left school as a teenager and began working around horses, first as an exercise rider at Latonia.^[3][4]

Arcaro rode his first race on May 18, 1931, at Bainbridge Park near Cleveland, Ohio.^[8][7] He did not win during his first season and lost his first 45 races.^[7] His first victory came on January 14, 1932, aboard Eagle Bird at Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico.^[1][5]

In 1933, Arcaro became the leading apprentice rider in New Orleans.^[4][3] He began riding for Calumet Farm in 1934, starting a relationship that later produced his two Triple Crown sweeps.^[4] His early career also included significant time at Narragansett Park in Rhode Island.^[9]

Arcaro's early career included a serious injury in 1933, when he suffered a fractured skull and a punctured lung in a spill while riding Gun Fire at a Chicago-area track. He was out of action for several months before returning to riding.^[10]

Arcaro became nationally prominent in 1938 when he won his first Kentucky Derby aboard Lawrin, owned by Herbert M. Woolf and trained by Ben A. Jones.^[1][4] Arcaro was 22 at the time.^[10] He later called the victory one of the greatest thrills of his career.^[2]

His aggressive riding style also brought discipline from racing authorities. In the 1942 Cowdin Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack, Arcaro retaliated against jockey Vincent Nodarse after early contact between their mounts. Nodarse was knocked from his horse, and Arcaro received a one-year suspension.^[2][1] The incident became the best-known example of Arcaro's early roughness in the saddle.^[11]

Arcaro rode many leading American horses of the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. His Hall of Fame mounts included Whirlaway, Citation, Kelso, Nashua, Bold Ruler, Sword Dancer, Hill Prince, and Real Delight.^[1] He also rode Challedon, Devil Diver, Hoop Jr., Hill Gail, Mark-Ye-Well, Round Table, Jaipur, and Jewel's Reward.^[3]

Arcaro won the Jockey Club Gold Cup ten times, the Wood Memorial Stakes nine times, and the Suburban Handicap eight times.^[1] He also won major races outside the United States. In 1953, he won the Queen's Plate at old Woodbine in Toronto. In 1954, he won the Washington, D.C. International at Laurel Park Racecourse aboard Fisherman.^[4][13]

The 1955 season included two major races involving Nashua and Swaps. Arcaro rode Nashua to a second-place finish behind Swaps in the 1955 Kentucky Derby. Nashua then won the Preakness and Belmont with Arcaro before defeating Swaps in their match race at Washington Park in Chicago.^[2][3]

Late in his riding career, Arcaro was closely associated with Kelso. Together they won 12 of 14 starts, with Kelso setting or equaling track records in several of those races.^[4] Arcaro later placed Kelso among the best horses he ever rode, along with Citation.^[2][4]

Arcaro was known for strength, judgment of pace, tactical awareness, and his ability to move a horse at the decisive point of a race.^[1][10] He was also noted for switching the whip between hands while maintaining balance.^[1][12]

The nickname "the Master" came from other jockeys who regarded him as a standard for race riding.^[2][10] Bill Shoemaker described him as one of the strongest finishers in the saddle and said Arcaro helped him when he first came to New York as a young rider.^[2][3]

In 1957, Arcaro discussed race-riding technique in a five-part Sports Illustrated series, "The Art of Race Riding", with Whitney Tower and illustrator Robert Riger.^[14]

Arcaro was active in the Jockeys' Guild, the organization formed to improve conditions, compensation, and protections for riders.^[15] He was among the Guild's founding members and later served as its president.^[15] During the 1940s and 1950s, the Guild sought improvements including track-purchased insurance for jockeys, ambulances at racetracks, higher mount fees, improved jockey-room sanitation, uniform apprentice rules, safer helmets, aluminum rails, film patrol, and increased insurance benefits.^[15]

Arcaro's career included several serious injuries. In 1959, he was injured in the Belmont Stakes when his mount Black Hills broke down on a muddy track. Arcaro landed face down in the mud and was struck by another horse. He suffered a concussion and other injuries and was out of action for about a month.^[10][16]

He rode his final race on November 18, 1961, finishing third aboard Endymion in the Pimlico Futurity.^[17] Arcaro formally announced his retirement on April 4, 1962.^[2][18] He retired with 4,779 wins from 24,092 mounts and earnings of $30,039,543.^[1]

After retiring as a jockey, Arcaro worked as a television commentator for nationally televised racing broadcasts, including coverage for CBS and ABC.^[2][3] He also worked as a spokesman for the Buick Motor Division of General Motors, owned an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills, California, and later worked in public relations for the Golden Nugget casino in Las Vegas.^[1][4] He later lived in Miami.^[10]

Arcaro appeared in the September 8, 1957, episode of The Mike Wallace Interview, where he discussed horse racing, gambling, horse doping, and the pressures of riding.^[19] His oral history interview with Joe Hirsch is held by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries.^[20]

Arcaro married Ruth Mishkell in 1941.^[6] They had two children, Carolyn and Bobby.^[10][3] Ruth Arcaro predeceased him.^[10] At the time of his death, Arcaro was married to Vera Arcaro.^[2][3]

Arcaro's daughter Carolyn later used the married name Carolyn Zaslow.^[3] In 1996, Arcaro had five granddaughters through his children.^[10]

Arcaro died of liver cancer at his Miami home on November 14, 1997. He was 81.^[2][3]

Arcaro was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1958 and the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame in 1971.^[1][21] He received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1953 and the Big Sport of Turfdom Award in 1974.^[22][23] The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History identifies him with the distinction of riding two Triple Crown winners and holding the record for Triple Crown race victories by a jockey.^[12]

Triple Crown totals: Kentucky Derby: 21 starts, 5 wins, 3 seconds, 2 thirds; Preakness Stakes: 15 starts, 6 wins, 2 seconds, 4 thirds; Belmont Stakes: 21 starts, 6 wins, 3 seconds, 2 thirds.^[1][3]

• Arcaro, Eddie; O'Hara, Jack (1951). I Ride to Win!. New York: Prentice-Hall – via HathiTrust.