When Secretariat’s regular jockey was suspended just days before the thoroughbred’s final race, a young rider from Ohio took the reins.
At 23 years old, Eddie Maple rode Secretariat to victory for the final time.
“It was certainly something that I looked forward to,” Maple said. “It was enough for almost a lifetime.”
That race – and thousands of other wins – landed him a spot in the National Racing Hall of Fame. Throughout his 33-year career, he rode in nearly 34,000 races and won the Belmont Stakes twice. He also raced in the Kentucky Derby nine times, placing second in 1982.
Now, his hometown of Carrollton in eastern Ohio is commemorating his legacy as well. Village signs boast the community’s status as the “Home of Eddie Maple.”
Eddie Maple sat down the The Ohio Newsroom to reflect on his illustrious career in the saddle.
This interview has been edited lightly for brevity and clarity.
On how he started his horseracing in Ohio
“It was just working with horses [at a small thoroughbred farm in Carrollon]. And the fact that I was small I think had something to do with it. And the fact that probably if I got lucky I could beat out a living. But, the Hall of Fame – I had no idea that was out there. I had no idea they raced anywhere else but Ohio.”
“I won my first race at Ascot Park. It was in Akron, Ohio. That was wonderful. I mean, it was April, cold, snowy, mud up to your ankles, but it was just the fact that I could get on these animals and go to the starting gate and get as much run out of them as I could. The transformation from there – through Cleveland, through Detroit, Michigan,Maryland, and then on to New York – [each place] was just a little bit of a step up that I found out after I turned around and looked at what was behind me.”
On the work of a jockey
“You have to be athletic. You can't have two left feet, you can't have two left hands. You have to have excellent balance. You have to have a quick mind, which comes with experience. The experience will make you a better rider for those split second decisions that you have to make, whether to go inside the horse that's stopping in front of you or whether you better get to the outside of him.”
“The horse's job, and their whole career, is to run as fast as they can and do what the rider and the trainer wants them to do. You [and the horse] just kind of become one and then you're off to the races.”
On riding Secretariat to victory
“It was quite a day. I must say that I was a little bit frightened of the outcome. I knew, if everything went well, I had the best horse. I knew that I was capable of doing it. I just didn't need anything out of my control happening. It was certainly something that I looked forward to. It was enough for almost a lifetime.”
“I was around him his whole career. When he was two, I was in New York watching him run and he just did things that other horses couldn't do. He ran faster. He finished stronger. He broke track records consistently.”
On being honored in Carrollton
“I've gone to different towns and I see those signs for those people. I remember saying, ‘Oh, that's kind of cool.’ My childhood was [in Carrollton], my junior high at Carrollton, [there were] the people that we met at church. It was just a good place to grow up. It’s a small rural town, but big enough to where it was the county seat that was the big, that was a big thing. [laugh] It's part of my legacy.”
