12. Believed to be the first and only jockey to claim victory after dying mid-race, Frank Hayes remained in the saddle to clinch victory at Belmont Park in June 1923
By profession not a jockey but rather a horse trainer and stableman, thirty-five-year-old Frank Hayes had never won a race before entering at Belmont Park, New York, on June 4, 1923. Riding Sweet Kiss, owned by A.M. Frayling and rated at odds of twenty to one, Hayes dramatically produced the best performance of his career. Winning by a head over his closest competitor, upon hurrying over to congratulate her rider Frayling discovered, to her immense horror, that the triumphant but unmoving Hayes was dead. Believed to have suffered a heart attack mid-race, by remaining atop the horse Hayes became the first, and to this day only, jockey believed to have won a competitive race posthumously.
Forced to lose a dangerous amount of weight in the days prior to the event, the rapid slimming is believed, in combination with stress and exertion, to have triggered a fatal heart attack in the young man. As a sign of respect, all post-race formalities were overlooked by the Jockey Club, including the customary weighing in and presentation ceremony. Hayes, dressed in his racing silks, was afforded a decent funeral three days later, whilst Sweet Kiss was retired from racing. Less admirably, becoming associated with her final ride, the unfortunate horse was allegedly nicknamed “Sweet Kiss of Death” for the remainder of her life.