Pat Day

Pat Day was known for being a patient rider with gentle hands and for not using a horse more than he had to, but was sometimes criticized for waiting too long to make his move. Because Day often came with late runs in big spots and had a reputation for saving horse for the stretch he was given the nickname Patient Pat. As Pat Forde, a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal, wrote in 1995, "He is so patient he could watch a faucet drip for days". Day was also strong at taking horses to the lead as he did on Louis Quatorze in his 1996 Preakness victory and on Commendable in his 2000 Belmont Stakes win. Day's riding style attracted considerable controversy over the years. Barry Irwin wrote in 2016 that he "drove many a captain of industry, hard-boot trainer and horseplayer to the brink of rage." D. Wayne Lukas, who won several Triple Crown races with Pat Day, once said "I'm only as good as Pat Day's rides." He is still criticized for costing Easy Goer a potential victory in the 1989 Preakness Stakes. Day said that Easy Goer was the best horse he ever rode. In 2016, he said, "As I re-run that race in my mind, I chastise myself pretty good because I feel I didn’t ride the best race of my career... Still, it was a great, great race. People still rave to me about the Preakness. They say it was the race of the century. I agree, except for the official order of finish." ==Riding career==

Day learned to ride from his father, who owned a car repair shop in the ranching community of Brush, Colorado. Day was the leading jockey by number of wins in 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991. Day rode winners of American Triple Crown races nine times, ranking him behind Eddie Arcaro's 17 wins in Triple Crown races as well as Bill Shoemaker's 11, while tied with Gary Stevens, Bill Hartack and Earl Sande's 9 each. However, Day had a comparatively poor Kentucky Derby record with only one win in twenty two tries. Some of Day's losses on top horses in the Kentucky Derby included Easy Goer, Forty Niner, Summer Squall, Demon's Begone, Corporate Report, Tabasco Cat, Timber Country, Favorite Trick, Ten Most Wanted and Menifee, who finished second behind Charismatic in both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. He had been the regular rider of 1990 Derby winner Unbridled but chose to ride Summer Squall in that race instead. Pat Day's first and only Kentucky Derby victory was in 1992 aboard longshot Lil E. Tee. On the day of that race, future Belmont Stakes and Breeders' Cup Classic winner A.P. Indy was forced to scratch from the race due to a foot injury. Arazi, the American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt and Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner, became the heavy favorite. Day rated behind Arazi in tenth place, hoping to follow his move and take second place. But when asked for run, Lil E. Tee responded by sweeping past Arazi for the win. "To say the least, it was very satisfying," said Day. In 1991, Pat Day won the Canadian Triple Crown and the Breeders' Cup Distaff aboard the future Hall of Fame filly Dance Smartly. He is the only jockey to have ridden at least one mount in each of the first 20 Breeders' Cups, and at one point was the all-time leader in Breeders' Cup winners, with 12. Day made his base in Kentucky, where he rode at Churchill Downs and Keeneland in the spring and fall. In the winter, he originally rode at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, switching in the mid-1990s to Gulfstream Park. In the summer, he originally rode at Arlington Park, later switching to Saratoga. With the change in circuits, Day's number of wins decreased but his earnings increased. Day won his first earnings title in 1999, followed by another win in 2000 in a close battle with Jerry Bailey. Day finished 2000 with his mounts earning $17,479,838 in purses (recording 267 wins from 1,219 starts). Bailey finished with $17,468,690 in earnings. Triple Crown top three finishes Day recorded nine wins in the American Triple Crown plus ten second-place finishes and four thirds. ;Kentucky Derby • 1988 on Forty Niner (2nd) • 1989 on Easy Goer (2nd) • 1990 on Summer Squall (2nd) • 1992 on Lil E. Tee (1st) • 1995 on Timber Country (3rd) • 1996 on Prince of Thieves (3rd) • 1999 on Menifee (2nd) ;Preakness Stakes • 1985 on '''Tank's Prospect''' (1st) • 1989 on Easy Goer (2nd) • 1990 on Summer Squall (1st) • 1991 on Corporate Report (2nd) • 1993 on Cherokee Run (2nd) • 1994 on Tabasco Cat (1st) • 1995 on Timber Country (1st) • 1996 on Louis Quatorze (1st) • 1999 on Menifee (2nd) ;Belmont Stakes • 1984 on Pine Circle (2nd) • 1987 on Gulch (3rd) • 1989 on Easy Goer (1st) • 1994 on Tabasco Cat (1st) • 2000 on Commendable (1st) • 2003 on Ten Most Wanted (2nd) • 2004 on Royal Assault (3rd) Breeders' Cup wins Day won twelve Breeders' Cup races. ;Breeders' Cup Classic • 1984 on Wild Again • 1990 on Unbridled • 1998 on Awesome Again • 1999 on Cat Thief ;Breeders' Cup Distaff • 1986 on Lady's Secret • 1991 on Dance Smartly • 2001 on Unbridled Elaine ;Breeders' Cup Turf • 1987 on Theatrical ;Breeders' Cup Juvenile • 1994 on Timber Country • 1997 on Favorite Trick ;Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies • 1987 on Epitome • 1994 on Flanders ==Records==

Day is the all-time leading rider at Churchill Downs and Keeneland Race Course, the two largest tracks in his adopted home state of Kentucky. At Churchill Downs, he won 2,481 races including 155 stakes race wins, and earned 15 riding titles at the spring meeting plus 19 at the fall meeting. At Keeneland, he recorded 918 wins, 95 of which were in stakes races, and earned 22 leading rider titles. In 1989, he set a North American record when he won eight of nine mounts in a single day at Arlington Park. ==Honors==

Day earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in 1984, 1986, 1987 and 1991. In 1991, he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. In 2006, a statue of him celebrating his win in the Kentucky Derby was unveiled at Churchill Downs. In 2015, Churchill Downs renamed the Derby Trial in his honor as the Pat Day Mile. Day also received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1985, given annually to a North American jockey who demonstrates the highest standards of professional and personal conduct. In 1995, he was voted the Mike Venezia Memorial Award, which honors "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship". He received the Big Sport of Turfdom Award for 2005 in acknowledgement of the way he worked with the media to enhance coverage of the sport. ==Religion and retirement==

Early in his career, he had serious substance abuse problems with both drugs and alcohol, but became a born-again Christian in the early 1980s. In 2016, Kentucky Governor Bevin appointed Day to the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission. ==Year-end charts==