Roscoe Tarleton Goose (January 21, 1891 – June 11, 1971) was an American

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 horse 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 in t ...

who was one of the inaugural class of inductees in the

Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame The Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame is a sports hall of fame for the U.S. state of Kentucky established in 1963. Individuals are inducted annually at a banquet in Louisville, Kentucky, Louisville and receive a bronze plaque inside Louisville's Freedo ...

. Born near

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, Roscoe Goose won a number of races, the most important of which came in 1913 when he captured the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

with the colt,

Donerail Donerail (1910 – after 1918) was an American Thoroughbred racehorse that was the upset winner of the 1913 Kentucky Derby. His win stands as the biggest longshot victory in the history of the Kentucky Derby. Going off at 91–1, Donerail provi ...

. Sent off at 91:1 odds, Roscoe Goose stunned racing fans with a win that returned backers $184.90 for a $2 wager, a Derby record which still stands. Dubbed ''The Golden Goose'', when his career as a jockey came to an end he remained in the Thoroughbred racing industry as a trainer and an owner. In 1928, he was the leading trainer at

Arlington Park Arlington International Racecourse (formerly Arlington Park, the name was Arlington Park Jockey Club from as soon as 1948 up to 1955) was a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Horse racing in the Chicago regi ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and in 1931 was training at

Ellis Park Racecourse Ellis Park is a thoroughbred racetrack near Henderson, Kentucky, just south of Evansville, Indiana. It is owned and operated by Churchill Downs Incorporated. While the track is located north of the Ohio River that forms the border between Kentuc ...

Henderson, Kentucky Henderson is a home rule-class city along the Ohio River and is the county seat of Henderson County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 28,757 at the 2010 U.S. census. It is part of the Evansville Metropolitan Area, locally known as the ...

. In 1940 he was back at Chicago's

where he trained the winner of the

Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes The Arlington-Washington Breeders' Cup Lassie Stakes is an American Thoroughbred horse race held annually in mid September at Arlington Park Racetrack in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Raced on Polytrack synthetic dirt over a distance of seven furlon ...

. Roscoe Goose also acted as an adviser to buyers of horses and served as president of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Breeders Association for three years. Success in racing and wise management of his money made him a very wealthy man. In 1974, author Earl Ruby, with an introduction by U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee

Eddie Arcaro George Edward Arcaro (February 19, 1916 – November 14, 1997), was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who won more American classic races than any other jockey in history and is the only rider to have won the U.S. Tripl ...

, told his life story in a book titled ''The Golden Goose; story of the jockey who won the most stunning Kentucky Derby and then became a millionaire''. The 2006 single "Roscoe" by American

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band

Midlake Midlake is an American folk rock band from Denton, Texas, formed in 1999. The band consists of Eric Pulido, McKenzie Smith, Scott Lee, Eric Nichelson, Jesse Chandler, and Joey McClellan. In 2012, vocalist, guitarist and primary songwriter Tim ...

makes a titular and lyrical reference to Goose, further elaborated upon in the lyric "been born in 1891."

Roscoe Goose and Jimmy Winkfield

In his 2004 book ''Wink: The Incredible Life and Epic Journey of Jimmy Winkfield'', author Ed Hotaling wrote of an incident involving Roscoe Goose at one of the events leading up to the May 6, 1961 running of the Kentucky Derby. Told to the author by Jimmy Winkfield's son, the story was part of publisher McGraw-Hill's press release and has been repeated in numerous publications. The book recounts what happened when Winkfield, an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

jockey and two-time winner of the Derby who was inducted in the U.S. Racing Hall of Fame, was an invited guest at the National Turfwriters Association banquet held at Louisville's historic Brown Hotel. On his arrival, Winkfield and his daughter Liliane were denied entrance through the front door of the then-still segregated hotel. Decades earlier, prejudice had forced Winkfield out of American racing and he had had to seek work and a new life in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Now, the seventy-nine-year-old Winkfield stood his ground and requested they be allowed in. They were eventually admitted but received the cold shoulder from everyone and were left to sit alone at their table. However, when Roscoe Goose recognized who it was, the

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

millionaire came over and spent time at their table. Included in Ed Hotaling's book is one of the last public photos ever taken of Jimmy Winkfield showing him and Roscoe Goose sitting together at the ensuing running of the Kentucky Derby. In 1963, Roscoe Goose was one of the inaugural class of inductees in the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame. He is honored with an engraved bronze plaque on display at the Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center's

Freedom Hall Freedom Hall is a multi-purpose arena in Louisville, Kentucky, on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center, which is owned by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is best known for its use as a basketball arena, previously serving as the home ...

in Louisville. Roscoe Goose died in Louisville, Kentucky in 1971 at the age of 80. His former home is on the National Register of Historic Places. He is buried there in the

Cave Hill Cemetery Cave Hill Cemetery is a Victorian era National Cemetery and arboretum located at Louisville, Kentucky. Its main entrance is on Baxter Avenue and there is a secondary one on Grinstead Drive. It is the largest cemetery by area and number of buria ...

. His brother

Carl Carl may refer to: *Carl, Georgia, city in USA *Carl, West Virginia, an unincorporated community * Carl (name), includes info about the name, variations of the name, and a list of people with the name *Carl², a TV series * "Carl", an episode of te ...

was also a jockey who won the 1913

Kentucky Oaks The Kentucky Oaks is a Graded stakes race, Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred Filly, fillies staged annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The race currently covers at Churchill Downs; the horses carry . The Kentucky O ...

but who was killed at age twenty-two in a racing accident on October 15, 1915 at

Latonia Race Track Latonia Race Track on Winston Avenue in Latonia ( Covington) Kentucky, six miles south of Cincinnati, Ohio, was a Thoroughbred horse racing facility opened in 1883. The track hosted a spring-summer racing series and a second in late fall. It wa ...

References

* Ruby, Earl. ''The Golden Goose; story of the jockey who won the most stunning Kentucky Derby and then became a millionaire; story of the jockey who won the most stunning Kentucky Derby and then became a millionaire'' (1974) Edco Vis Associates Inc & The Thoroughbred Record Co Inc. ASIN B0006CGR90
Roscoe Goose at the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame

MAY 5, 2005 article at the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame on Jimmy Winkfield and Roscoe Goose

{{DEFAULTSORT:Goose, Roscoe 1891 births 1971 deaths American jockeys Jockeys from Louisville, Kentucky Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery