Donald Lawrence Meade (December 12, 1913 – December 22, 1996) was an American National Champion jockey. Called the "Bad Boy" of the sport by

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

magazine because of his numerous suspensions and fines, he is widely known to this day as a result of his win on

Brokers Tip Brokers Tip (March 16, 1930 – July 14, 1953), by Black Toney out of the French mare Forteresse, was a Thoroughbred racehorse and the only horse in history whose sole win was in the Kentucky Derby. Kentucky Derby His Derby win went down in hist ...

in the

1933 Kentucky Derby The 1933 Kentucky Derby was the 59th running of the Kentucky Derby. The race took place on May 6, 1933. The first two finishers of the race were Brokers Tip, ridden by Don Meade, and Head Play, ridden by Herb Fisher. Head Play led early, but Br ...

Background

Meade began riding ponies as a child and eventually horses at bush tracks and at county Fair races. In the summer of 1929 he rode horses for the mayor of his hometown who contacted a friend, trainer Sam Orr, who agreed to take Meade on as an

apprentice Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...

. In July 1930, Meade got his first win aboard Queens Bessie at

Lansdowne Park Lansdowne Park is a urban park, historic sports, exhibition and entertainment facility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, owned by the City of Ottawa. It is located on Bank Street adjacent to the Rideau Canal in The Glebe neighbourhood of central Otta ...

Richmond, British Columbia Richmond is a coastal city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. It occupies almost the entirety of Lulu Island (excluding Queensborough), between the two estuarine distributaries of the Fraser River. Encompassing the a ...

The "Fighting Finish"

In what became known as the "Fighting Finish", Don Meade on Brokers Tip and jockey Herb Fisher aboard

Head Play Head Play (April 2, 1930 – December 11, 1954) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 1933 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series of races and as the horse on the losing end of the "Fighting F ...

battled their way to the finish line of the 1933 Kentucky Derby. Head Play was leading when Meade sent Brokers Tip through an opening on the inside to pull even. As the horses ran side by side down the stretch, their jockeys grabbed and whipped each other. The racing stewards declared Brokers Tip the winner by a nose. A photo of the Fighting Finish taken by a photographer for the ''

Louisville Courier-Journal The ''Courier Journal'', also known as the ''Louisville Courier Journal'' (and informally ''The C-J'' or ''The Courier''), and called ''The Courier-Journal'' between November 8, 1868, and October 29, 2017, is the highest circulation newspape ...

'' is one of the most widely recognized in Throughbred racing. Meade died on December 22, 1996, in

Hollywood, Florida Hollywood is a city in southern Broward County, Florida, United States, located between Fort Lauderdale and Miami. As of July 1, 2019, Hollywood had a population of 154,817. Founded in 1925, the city grew rapidly in the 1950s and 1960s, and is no ...

at age 83.

References

1913 births 1996 deaths American jockeys American Champion jockeys People from Aurora County, South Dakota {{US-horseracing-bio-stub