Wayne D. Wright

Who was Wayne D. Wright?

Wayne Danforth Wright was a Champion American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won all three of the Triple Crown races in different years.

Wayne Wright began riding in his small town of Rexburg, Idaho and by age ten was riding in area fairground races. He began his professional career at age fourteen at a racetrack in Reno, Nevada where he got his first win on July 15, 1931. Soon his skills saw him move to the race with the best on the New York State racing circuit where in 1934 he was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings and won the first of his three Triple Crown races. In 1936 he again led all American jockeys in earnings, winning stakes races on the U.S. East Coast plus in California where he won the West's most prestigious races at Santa Anita Park, the Santa Anita Derby and Santa Anita Handicap.

In 1939, Wright appeared in the Columbia Pictures film, Columbia World of Sports: Jockeys Up in which future National Radio Hall of Fame and American Sportscasters Hall of Fame inductee Bill Stern went to Santa Anita Park and spent the day visiting the stables and meeting with several jockeys, trainers, and horses.