Tod Sloan (jockey)

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James Forman "Tod" Sloan
OccupationJockey
BornAugust 10, 1874
Bunker Hill, Indiana,
United States
DiedDecember 21, 1933 (age 59)
Los Angeles, California,
United States
Major racing wins
Hudson Stakes (1893, 1898)
Flying Handicap (1896)
Foam Stakes (1896, 1898)
Manhattan Handicap (1896)
Test Handicap (1896)
Zephyr Stakes (1896, 1898)
Belles Stakes (1897)
Eclipse Stakes (1897, 1898)
Flatbush Stakes (1897, 1900)
Laureate Stakes (1897, 1898)
Ocean Handicap (1897)
Russet Stakes (1897, 1898)
Double Event Stakes (part 1) (1898)
Double Event Stakes (part 2) (1898)
Fall Handicap (1898)
Fashion Stakes (1898)
Great American Stakes (1898)
Great Eastern Handicap (1898)
Great Trial Stakes (1898)
Lawrence Realization Stakes (1898)
National Stallion Stakes (1898)
Pansy Stakes (1898)
Spring Stakes (1898)

International race wins:

1,000 Guineas (1899)
Ascot Gold Cup (1900)

Honours
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1955)
Significant horses
Hamburg, Clifford, Sibola, Belmar, Merman,

James Forman "Tod" Sloan (August 10, 1874 - December 21, 1933) was an American

thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame
in 1955.

Early life and US racing career

Morris Park Racetrack
.

James Forman Sloan was born in

St. Louis, but later in Kansas City was employed by a thoroughbred horse trainer
who encouraged him to take advantage of his diminutive stature and become a jockey.

By 1886, Sloan was working at

New Orleans
, and on March 6, 1889, scored his first win there.

In 1893, Sloan went to race in northern

Lawrence Realization, easily defeating Kentucky Derby winner Plaudit
, then scored the most impressive win of his career in the 2¼-mile American Brighton Cup.

Such were Sloan's abilities that in 1896 he won nearly 30% of all his races, increased it to 37% in 1897, and upped it to an astonishing 46% in 1898.

UK racing career

Vanity Fair caricature by Godfrey Douglas Giles
illustrating Sloan's distinctive riding style.

Charles F. Dwyer, a close friend and son of prominent racehorse owner Mike Dwyer, was part of a syndicate that backed Sloan's mounts when he rode in England.[1] Racing there on September 30, 1898, Sloan rode five consecutive winners at the

African American jockey, Willie Simms had ridden exactly that way taking England's Crawfurd Plate (sic) at Newmarket against England's finest bolt-upright riders.[2]
)

Returning to England the following year he won a number of important races including the 1899

St. Leger to become the 1899 Triple Crown Champion
.

In 1900,

Diamond Jim Brady and traveled with a personal valet
and a trunk full of clothes.

His reputation was such that he was the "Yankee Doodle" in the George M. Cohan Broadway musical Little Johnny Jones and the basis for Ernest Hemingway's short story My Old Man. Although Sloan's racing career was spectacular, it was relatively short, ending by 1901 under a cloud of suspicion that he had been betting on races in which he had competed. Advised by the British Jockey Club that they would not renew his license, he never rode for the Prince of Wales. The ban in Britain was maintained by American racing authorities, and Sloan's jockey career came to an end.

Retirement

After Sloan left racing, Oscar Hammerstein arranged for him to star in a one-man show in a New York vaudeville theatre, but it did not last.

He eventually went to

Rue de la Paix
). Financial problems from overspending on a lavish lifestyle forced Sloan to sell the bar and return to the U.S.

His money gone, in 1920 he tried acting in

Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale.[3]

Ultimately, British racing historians restored his reputation, as his betting on races had been a dubious charge at best. He was posthumously inducted into the

Houghton Mifflin
to write a book on Sloan, but it too was never published because of Markham's own problems.

Personal life

In 1907, Sloan was married to the stage actress Julia Sanderson. He claimed at the time of the marriage that he had given up racing and gambling, but in the words of his obituary, "neither his decision nor his marriage lasted very long"; Sloan and Sanderson were divorced in 1913. In 1920, he married Elizabeth Saxon Malone, also an actress; they were divorced in 1927, with Elizabeth accusing him of "mental cruelty and habitual intemperance".[4] He had one daughter, Ann Giroux (b. 1922); the two were estranged.[citation needed]

Rhyming slang

The name of Tod Sloan left a mark on the English language. His name was already famous in London because he rode many winners in England where his first name was adopted into the rhyming slang used by the Cockneys of the East end of London to mean 'own' as in 'on his own' (from Tod Sl'oan'). Hence, someone 'on his tod' is alone.

Notes

  1. New York Times
    . February 20, 1899. Retrieved 2008-08-09.
  2. ^ The Great Black Jockeys, page 298
  3. ^ "Tod Sloan Finishes Last Race With Smile On Lips". International News Service in Rochester Evening Journal. December 22, 1933. Retrieved 2013-11-28. Funeral arrangements were being made today for Tod Sloan, fiftynine, for many years the world's most famous jockey. Death from cirrhosis the liver yesterday ...
  4. ^ "Tod Sloan, Jockey, Dead on the Coast". New York Times. December 22, 1933. p. 21. Retrieved March 8, 2015.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tod Sloan (jockey).
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