McLEAN COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY NEWS
By Euleen Rickard
The movie “Seabiscuit” has attracted much attention this year. It has even inspired home décor. From figurines to bed linens horses are the “in thing.” Most admire the beauty of the horse even if they don’t own or ride them.
For Willie Lee Johnson, the former jockey now living quietly with his wife Hazel just east of Calhoun, riding horses was a passion in his young days. He has the distinction of riding against the famous and beloved Seabiscuit when he was just a teenager. He had a distinguished career as a jockey. The following is his story in his own words:
I was born Willie Lee Johnson on November 8, 1920 in Philpot, Kentucky. As a young boy I always loved horses and I was very small for my age. I never heard of race horses and race tracks until one day my Dad had to have a veterinarian for one of our horses, so he got a Dr. Hendricks from Owensboro to come and see about the horse. And that is the beginning of my story.
Dr. Henricks got in touch with a lady by the name of Mrs. J. R. Murphy from Evansville who had racehorses and she took me under contract. That was the year of 1935. I made $10.00 a month and 50cents a day to eat on and I lived at the barn with the horses.
I was fourteen years old and weighed sixty-three pounds.
I started riding in 1936. I won my first race in 1937. I was the leading apprentice jockey and also the second leading rider of the country. I held the world record on a horse named “Double Call” in 1940 and I held that record for 10 years. I rode a horse named “Kender” and then I rode “Fighting Back” in 1951.
I guess I am the only jockey that ever rode 68 winners in 26 days. That was in 1937 at Ellis Park and at that time it was called Dade Park. I also won the Governor’s Handicap in 1937 and 1938 on a horse named “Little Nymph.”
I rode at every racetrack in the country at that time and in Cuba and Mexico. It was in Mexico that I finished 3rd to “Seabiscuit.” I rode for 22 years taking time off for three years to serve in the army. I was discharged in October 1945 and returned to riding in November 1945.
I retired in 1958 to my farm in McLean County that I bought when I was seventeen years old. It was a big change for us but we loved it. My wife Hazel and two children, our son Willie (Shorty) Johnson Jr. and our daughter Sheila who is now deceased.
I will say that I had a lot of falls and this life was not all roses but I have not been on a horse since I retired. I knew if I ever got on one I would go back in the racetrack again and I really had to fight a weight problem.
In November 1999 I was inducted into the Owensboro-Daviess County Tourist Commission “Hall of Fame” and that was one honor I will always remember. I will soon be 83 years old and I have lived a life of memories.
Thank you for taking time to read my story. -Willie Lee Johnson
Recently Blythe Howard and I visited Willie and Hazel in their home where the walls are lined with paintings and pictures of him and the horses that he rode. There are stacks of well-documented pictures and a scrapbook of newspaper accounts of the races that he rode in.
Memories of being a seventeen-year old jockey racing against Seabiscuit linger in his mind but his favorite horse was Hillyer Court that he rode to victory in the $25,000 New Orleans Handicap.
Thanks to Willie for writing his story and for allowing us to copy some of his pictures for the museum.