How a horse race was won by a dead jockey

On June 4 1923, jockey Frank Hayes won his first ever horse race — a steeplechase at Belmont Park in New York. After the race, officials went up to congratulate Frank on his maiden victory.

There was only one problem… Hayes was dead.

This year, the ghosts from Halloween will be the only spectators in the stands at the Melbourne Cup. In true underworld style, this is the story of how a jockey wasn’t ablemake it to the finish line before breathing his last breath.

An ambitious immigrant from Ireland

Frank Hayes was born in Ireland and was 16 when he moved to Brooklyn with his mother and sister. He began working as a horse trainer for racehorse owner Mr. James K.L. Frayling.

It is the dream of many trainers to become jockeys and Frank worked very hard for 5 years before finally being given the opportunity to ride in his first race. It wasn’t just any old race meeting either — his first outing would be at the prestigious Belmont Park in Long Island, New York State.

The horse that Hayes was assigned to ride was a filly by the name of Sweet Kiss. Frank was not the only one who was about to debut in their first competition — Sweet Kiss had also never taken the track before.

The horse’s owner, Miss Frayling, had been having trouble finding a decent jockey to ride the nag. When Hayes had put himself forward, he was rejected on the grounds that he was too heavy. Frank wasn’t going to let this stop him, however, and even though he was a solid 64 kilograms, he was still able to convince Miss Frayling that he would put in the work and make the weight.

Miss Frayling was unable to find any other better jockey and so agreed to let Hayes ride his first race on her horse. Frank for his part was successful in losing weight and even managed to take off a final 5 kilograms in the 24 hours leading up to the big race.

The race itself was a 2-mile steeplechase with 12 fences to jump throughout the track. Understandably, a debutant horse and rider together didn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the punters — the odds of Frank Hayes winning on Sweet Kiss were 20–1.

Harrowing history is made at Belmont Park

It was a nice summer’s day and Hayes was said to be extremely excited about his premiere race. He supposedly told his fellow riders that day that “Today’s a good day to make history.”

Little did he know how right he would be!

The race was well underway and by the time Sweet Kiss had made her final turn, astonishingly she had made her way to the front of the pack and was in the lead! As she neared the finish line, spectators observed that Hayes had lowered his head and was appearing to whisper in the nag’s ear.

Sweet Kiss galloped on and when she crossed the finishing line, she had won by a head.

100 yards past the finishing post and Hayes toppled over and fell off the saddle.

Dr. John Voorhees ran over to check on Hayes and pronounced him dead at the scene.

Out of respect for the deceased, post-race formalities were waived, and Hayes was officially declared the race winner.

A memorable victory for the saddest reason

“The grim reaper paid a sensational visit to the Belmont Park track yesterday,” was how the Brooklyn Daily Eagle described the event.

The doctor later stated that Hayes had died from heart disease. The failure was said to have been brought upon by a combination of the severe weight loss regime coupled with the stress from the all the excitement.

Hayes’s victory is the only recorded time in history that a competition has been won by a dead person.

And what happened to Sweet Kiss?

She never raced again.

She earned the nickname, ‘Sweet Kiss of Death’, and no other jockey was ever brave enough to try their luck with her.

Happy Melbourne Cup everyone!