Former jockey Nemeti dies at 69

Bill Nemeti, a former jockey who worked in the racing office at New York Racing Association tracks for two decades, died March 7. He was 69.

As a jockey, Nemeti won 656 races from 1976-83, including 29 stakes, according to Equibase. His biggest victory came aboard Princelet in the Grade 2 Meadowlands Cup in 1981. His other graded stakes victories came in the 1980 Long Branch on No Bend, the 1982 Salvatore Mile on Count His Fleet, and the 1982 Lamplighter on Majesty’s Prince.

Nemeti was paralyzed from the waist down after being involved in a car accident near the Meadowlands Racetrack in December 1983, according to an article in The New York Times.

In 1990, Nemeti joined the NYRA as an entry clerk in the racing office. He worked at NYRA until he retired in 2010. Nemeti spent the last several years living with his daughter Nicole Stewart in Anahola, Hi., where he died.

In addition to Stewart, Nemeti is survived by another daughter, Trinity Galarza, and six grandchildren as well as his brother Vincent Nemeti.
The family asks that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made in Nemeti’s name to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund.