Steve Brooks (jockey)

Steve Brooks, born in McCook, Nebraska on 12 August 1922 and died on 23 September 1979, was an American national champion and Hall of Fame jockey, the son of a horse dealer. He began riding at ten, won his first race at an accredited track in 1938 at sixteen, moved to Chicago to ride at Arlington Park and won the Arlington riding title three years running from 1947 to 1949. In 1949 he won the Kentucky Derby on Calumet Farm's Ponder, bringing the 16 to 1 colt from last of fourteen to beat Capot, and was that year's champion jockey by earnings. He rode Citation to a world record mile in the 1950 Golden Gate Mile and to the 1951 Hollywood Gold Cup, and in 1963 became the fifth American jockey to win 4,000 races. He entered the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1963.