FRANK HAYES

Frank Hayes; what a common name.  It sounds like someone you should know but you can't place him.  This Frank was a stableman, race horse trainer and a jockey.  He was born in 1901 and died in 1923.  Hayes was born in Ireland which attracted me to him.  

Frank always wanted to be a jockey but he was too large a man.  He weighed 142 pounds when he was offered a ride, if he could make the weight, on a horse he was training at Belmont Park in New York.  It was a steeplechase race and he needed to weigh no more than 130 pounds.  Steeple chase races, you know, include not only racing distances but jumping fences and slogging through water in ditches like a countryside ride.  

The young man went on a diet, to say the least.   He starved himself and got down to the needed weight in just a few days.  His horse was named Sweet Kiss.  He rode her like the wind and crossed the finish line ahead of all others.  The horse slowed to a stop about a 100 yards from the finish and Frank slipped slowly off and landed face down.  He died sometime during the race of a heart attack probably because of his forced severe dieting.  

It was his first and last race as a jockey and he was the winner because his horse crossed the finish line with his body on it.  Sweet Kiss never raced again.  The Irish will not be deterred.