Pat Day

Who is Pat Day?

Patrick Alan "Pat" Day is an American jockey. He is a four-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1991. Day also received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1985, given annually to a North American jockey who demonstrates the highest standards of professional and personal conduct. In 1995, he was voted the Mike Venezia Memorial Award for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship".

Pat Day was known for being a patient rider with gentle hands, and for not using a horse more than he had to. Because Day often arrived at the wire too late, he was given unflattering nicknames—Pat Day, and Patient Pat. He often looked too passive, and his deliberate riding style of waiting and waiting, then making a move, and waiting again, frustrated trainer D. Wayne Lukas, and many fans and bettors. He also drew criticism by riding tentatively, and stopping and starting with many of his mounts.

Day has ridden winners of U.S. Triple Crown races nine times. Day was quoted in a recent interview on the TVG Network's "Legends" program that Easy Goer was the best horse he ever rode in his career.