Eddie Dugan

Who is Eddie Dugan?

Eddie Dugan was a jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing who won three American Classic Races and two Canadian Classic Races. In addition, Dugan raced and won in Russia.

In 1907, Eddie Dugan was an apprentice jockey. He rode in Chicago and at racetracks in the Northeastern United States where a New York City newspaper called him "the cleverest apprentice in the east." Dugan's wins that year included the Manhattan Handicap and the first of two Suburban Handicaps. In 1908, a year when the Hart-Agnew Law banned gambling in New York, the number of Thoroughbred races was limited and the industry, without revenue from betting, was on the verge of collapse. Hired by major stable owners Harry Payne Whitney and Richard T. Wilson, Jr., Eddie Dugan won the first of his three American Classic Races, riding Royal Tourist to victory in the Preakness Stakes. In the pre U.S. Triple Crown era, Dugan never rode in the Kentucky Derby.

A very aggressive rider, on September 23, 1908 the New York Times reported that two jockeys had been seriously hurt in a race at Gravesend Race Track on Coney Island due to rough riding by Eddie Dugan for which he was fined and suspended. The Times wrote that Dugan's action was so egregious that other riders in the jockeys' room threatened to attack him. Banned from competing, after his suspension expired Eddie Dugan returned to riding in January 1909 at Santa Anita Park in California.