Eugene Hildebrand (August 16, 1887 - November 26, 1921) was an American National Champion

jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...

Thoroughbred racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing i ...

who won the 1904

Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...

and the 1905

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...

, races that would become part of the U.S. Triple Crown series.

Biography

Born in

Gilroy, California Gilroy is a city in Northern California's Santa Clara County, south of Morgan Hill and north of San Benito County. Gilroy is the southernmost city in the San Francisco Bay Area, with a population of 56,766 as of the 2019 U.S. Census Projection ...

on August 16, 1887, Gene Hildebrand began his career in Thoroughbred racing in 1901 working as a stable hand then as a jockey at Emeryville Race Track near

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. In 1904 he won the

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which at the time was the most important race in California. Prominent owners on the

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took notice and Hildebrand competed at the big

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tracks where at

Gravesend Race Track Gravesend Race Track at Gravesend in Brooklyn, New York was a Thoroughbred horse racing facility that opened in 1886 and closed in 1910. The track was built by the Brooklyn Jockey Club with the backing of Philip and Michael Dwyer, two wealthy raci ...

he won the 1904 Preakness Stakes on May 28 aboard the

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Bryn Mawr. He went on to win numerous top stakes races including the most prestigious event of that era, the

Belmont Futurity Stakes The Futurity Stakes, commonly referred to as the Belmont Futurity, is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually in mid-September or October at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York, United States. Open to two-year-old horses, it is raced on turf ...

. Back on the

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for the winter racing season, on December 23, 1904, Hildebrand set a new

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for wins in a year when he rode win number 293 at Ascot Park in

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. He would finish the year as the national champion in total races won with 297 and in stakes wins with 35. Returning to the East Coast in 1905, on May 24 Hildebrand rode the

filly A filly is a female horse that is too young to be called a mare. There are two specific definitions in use: *In most cases, a ''filly'' is a female horse under four years old. *In some nations, such as the United Kingdom and the United States, t ...

Tanya Tanya may refer to: * Tanya (Judaism),an early work of Hasidic philosophy by Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi. * Tanya (name), a given name and list of people with the name * Tanya or Lara Saint Paul (born 1946) * List of Mortal Kombat characters#Tany ...

to victory in the 1905 Belmont Stakes in its first running at the new

Belmont Park Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905. It is operated by the non-profit New York Racin ...

track in

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. Suspended on September 23, 1905, for rough riding, Hildebrand was not reinstated until March 9, 1906. The following day he rode at

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. From three mounts in the first three races on the day's

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, he finished second in the opening race, won the second race, and finished fourth in the third race. Gene Hildebrand battled weight gain which hindered his racing and would force him to retire from riding in 1909. For several years he remained in the industry as an owner of a small stable of racehorses. In 1919 he fell ill with a flu that plagued him for two years until it turned to

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

and he died in an

hospital on November 26, 1921, at the age of 34.

References

External links

Photos: Tanya, and the 1905 Belmont Stakes at Colin's Ghost - Thoroughbred Racing History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hildebrand, Gene 1887 births 1921 deaths American jockeys American Champion jockeys People from Gilroy, California Sportspeople from Santa Clara County, California Deaths from pneumonia in California