Peb, Leggett named to Joe Hirsch Roll of Honor

Pierre “Peb” Bellocq, the most famous racing caricaturist of all time, and William Leggett, the late writer who covered racing for four decades, have been selected for inclusion in the National Museum of Racing’s Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor, the Saratoga Springs museum announced on Monday.

Bellocq, who has been known as “Peb” since signing that name to a caricature of jockey published in a French racing publication at the age of 19, is certainly the most accomplished racing cartoonist in history. The son of a French jockey and the grandson of a French trainer, Bellocq produced commissioned murals for a half-dozen racetrack clubhouses in the U.S., has had his works exhibited in art galleries, and has received numerous awards.

Bellocq, 94, was the cartoonist for Daily Racing Form from 1955 to 2008. Early on his career, he also produced political cartoons for the Philadelphia Enquirer, but as his fame grew in racing, he focused solely on the track and its rich cast of characters. Originals of his work are still highly sought-after among racing collectors.

Leggett, who died in 1996 at the age of 64, was born in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., home to the famed Saratoga Race Course. He was hired as a football writer by Sports Illustrated after graduating from Seton Hall and a brief stint in the Army, but he was soon handed assignments that led him back to racing.

Leggett was the turf editor at Sports Illustrated during the sports heyday, in the 1960s and 1970s. He won an Eclipse Award for writing in 1979, retired from Sports Illustrated in 1986, and then worked as a freelance writer for Thoroughbred Times, a now defunct trade publication, and as a columnist for a local Saratoga Springs sports publication, the Pink Sheet.

The Joe Hirsch Media Roll of Honor was established by the racing museum in 2010 and has inducted 24 individuals, not including this year’s selections and its namesake, the famed columnist for Daily Racing Form.