Larry Snyder

Who is Larry Snyder?

Larry Lloyd Snyder is a retired American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey whose career spanned thirty-five years from 1960 to 1994. In the early 1960s he began competing at Oaklawn Park Race Track in Hot Springs, Arkansas where he would win eight riding titles. Beginning in 1964, he also rode at Arlington Park in Chicago where he won the riding title in 1974 and 1976, then at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City, Louisiana he won six riding titles between 1981 and 1986.

In 1969 Snyder won 352 races, more than any other jockey in the United States that year. On April 1, 1969, Snyder won six races on a single card at Oaklawn Park, the first jockey to ever do so at that racetrack. On August 17, 1981 he rode five winners on a single program, tying the Louisiana Downs record. Among his notable wins were victories in the 1983 Rebel Stakes aboard that year's Kentucky Derby winner, Sunny's Halo, as well as the 1989 Arkansas Derby on Dansil whom he would ride to a fourth-place finish in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes.

At Louisiana Downs on August 24, 1989, Larry Snyder became only the sixth rider in U.S. racing history to reach 6,000 wins. That year, his distinguished career was recognized by his peers through the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. The honor is awarded by Santa Anita Park to a North American jockey who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.