Hall of Fame jockey Don Pierce, one of the top riders at Santa Anita, Hollywood Park and Del Mar in the 1960s and 1970s, has died at age 89.
Pierce’s death Monday, Oct. 5, in Denton, Texas, was announced by his brother, former jockey Larry Pierce, on social media.
A native of Clebit, Oklahoma, Pierce began riding at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico in 1954 and became a star in California. Known as a trusted big-race rider with a knack for reserving horses behind the front-runners, he won 3,546 races in a 31-year career, including 351 at the stakes level. Those included four Santa Anita Handicap winners, Linmold, Physician, Hill Rise and Triple Bend, all between 1960 and 1972.
Pierce would later call Hill Rise the best horse he rode, but other notables included Flying Paster, Ack Ack and Silky Sullivan.
At the time Pierce retired, in January 1985, the only jockeys with more victories at Santa Anita meets were legends Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay and John Longden, and the only riders with more stakes wins at the Arcadia track were Shoemaker and Pincay.
He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 2010. Many considered the honor overdue.
