Sport: Horse Racing Inducted: 1999 Country: United States Born: February 9, 1931 in Wilkes Barre,
Pennsylvania
Died: January 27, 2011
One of America’s
leading jockeys for nearly twenty years, Willie Harmatz
won more than 1,800 races between
1953 and 1971. He won in excess of $10
million in purses, riding such great
horses as Silky Sullivan and Round
Table.
The 5', 108-pound Harmatz captured
the Preakness aboard Royal Orbit
in 1959 and rode in the Triple Crown’s Kentucky Derby
four times and the
Belmont Stakes. He won 12 races worth
$100,000 or more and once rode six winners on the same day,
April 23,
1954, at Bay Meadows.
Willie received the Jockey’s Guild
Meritorious Award in 1957 and the
George Woolf Sportsmanship Award in
1958.
In 1968, Harmatz co-founded the
Jockey’s Association and was its executive
director from 1972 to 1978.
