Hall of Fame jockey Don Pierce dead at 89

Hall of Fame jockey Don Pierce, who rode 3,546 winners in a career that spanned four decades, has died.

Pierce’s death, on Oct. 5, was announced in a social media post by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Thursday, citing his brother Larry.

Pierce was 89.

Born in Clebit, Okla., Pierce began riding in the 1950s and had his first winner at Ruidoso Downs in 1954. Within a dozen years, Pierce had won riding titles at Belmont Park (1962) and Del Mar (1966).

Pierce developed a reputation as a stakes-winning jockey, leading the nation's riders in stakes wins in 1973 with 32.

In California, Pierce won the Santa Anita Handicap four times from 1960 to 1972, the last aboard Triple Bend. Hill Rise won the 1965 Santa Anita Handicap with Pierce aboard, a year after they teamed to win the Santa Anita Derby.

In 1962, Pierce pulled a surprise win in the Big Cap aboard Physician, who was part of a three-horse entry with runners ridden by Bill Shoemaker and Alex Maese.

In those days, jockeys who rode in entries would sometimes pool their winnings. Shoemaker and Maese agreed to such an arrangement but did not include Pierce. When Physician rallied into contention on the turn, Shoemaker shouted, “Pierce, you’re in.”

Pierce kept his full share of the winnings, and told that story repeatedly over the years.

Pierce won a second Santa Anita Derby in 1979 aboard Flying Paster, who was later fifth in the Kentucky Derby. Pierce had five mounts in the Kentucky Derby, with his best finish a fourth-place finish by Super Moment in 1980.

In his career, Pierce won 99 stakes at the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting, and 13 stakes at the track’s Oak Tree meeting, held in the fall.

Pierce won 85 stakes at Hollywood Park, including the 1968 Hollywood Gold Cup aboard the mare Princessnesian, and five consecutive runnings of the Los Angeles Handicap, from 1969 to 1973.

Pierce won 54 stakes at Del Mar from 1958 to 1981. Among them, Pierce won four runnings of the Del Mar Debutante, and the Del Mar Derby and Del Mar Oaks on three occasions.

Pierce won seven stakes at Del Mar in 1966, 1973, and 1978.

In New York, Pierce won such major races as the 1962 Hopeful Stakes, 1964 Sanford Stakes, and 1965 Acorn Stakes.

Overall, Pierce had 351 career stakes wins until his retirement in 1984.

In 1967, Pierce was honored with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award at Santa Anita. The award, which can be won only once, recognizes a jockey’s achievement on the racetrack and personal character.

Pierce was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010. In recent years, while in declining health, he moved to Texas to be closer to family.

Pierce lived in Southern California for much of his retirement, staying involved in racing and focusing on his golf game. Later in life, he worked as a clocker at Del Mar, as a jockey’s agent, as a trainer from the mid-1980s to mid-1990s, and invested in a restaurant near Del Mar.

“You could bet that he was probably almost as famous for his golf outings as he was a jockey,” Darrel McHargue, one of his former riding colleagues, said on Thursday. “And he rode a lot of great horses.

“He always had a personality and sense of humor that would leave you laughing.”

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