A Literal Dead Finish
Frank Hayes was a horse trainer and stableman. One day in 1923, the then twenty-two-year-old (or thirty five – contemporary accounts differ) was asked to ride a horse in a steeplechase at the Belmont Park racetrack in New York. His horse, Sweet Kiss, was a 20:1 longshot. Between that and the fact that it was Hayes’ first race, nobody expected much of him or of his steed. He surprised everybody – on multiple levels. To make weight, Hayes had to slim down from 142 pounds to 130. He reportedly pulled it off in a day. As the Buffalo Morning Express described it: “he spent several hours on the road, jogging off surplus weight. He strove and sweated and denied himself water and when he climbed into the saddle at post time he was weak and tired“.
That was a bad place to be at the start of a race. Especially for a newbie who had never raced before. The sport is demanding of jockeys. Their arms and legs work like pistons nonstop, and their hearts can beat 180 times a minute. At some point during the race that turned out to be Hayes’ first and last, he suffered a heart attack and died instantly. However, he did not fall off his horse, but remained in the saddle and crossed the finish line in first place. It was only when officials came to congratulate him that they discovered that he was dead. Hayes became the only deceased jockey known to have won a race. As to Sweet Kiss, it never raced again. It became known forever after as the “Sweet Kiss of Death”.