Leslie Hulet, a top rider at Finger Lakes for nearly three decades, dies at 69

Former jockey Leslie Hulet, who for years was the all-time winningest rider at Finger Lakes and who won the Grade 1 Whitney in 1981 aboard Fio Rito, died last Friday at age 69.

Hulet was the leading rider at Finger Lakes six times. He held the record for wins at the Farmington, N.Y., track from 1999 until 2017, when John Davila Jr. passed him.

Hulet rode at Finger Lakes from 1972 until 1999. He is a member of the track’s Hall of Fame. He retired with 3,816 wins.

In 1981, trainer Michael Ferraro and owner Michael LeCesse, a Rochester, N.Y., bowling alley owner, sent Fio Rito from Finger Lakes to Saratoga for the Whitney. Fio Rito bruised a foot several days before the race but ran anyway, pulling off a front-running $22.40 upset under Hulet to defeat Paul Mellon’s Winter’s Tale by a neck.

Fio Rito raced from 1977 to 1981, winning 28 of 50 starts. Hulet was aboard for 20 of those wins.

A memorial race and moment of silence will be held for Hulet at Finger Lakes this Saturday.

A funeral will be held noon Saturday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Paragonah, Utah. Hulet will be buried at the Paragonah Cemetery following the service.