Walter Blum

Walter Blum (September 28, 1934 – March 14, 2024) was an American jockey who won 4,382 races in a 22-year career. Blum received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award for being the best jockey of 1964. He won the 1971 Belmont Stakes as the jockey of 34-1 long shot Pass Catcher, which prevented Canonero II from winning the Triple Crown. He was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, and the following year into the United States Racing Hall of Fame.

Riding career Blum was born on September 28, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York to Morris and Fay (Sieger) Blum. His father was a newspaper delivery man. Despite being blind in his right eye from the age of two, when he fell off a toy horse, in 1953 at 19 years of age he embarked on a career as a jockey,

Achievements Blum won 4,382 races in a 22-year career.

He won more races in 1963 and 1964 than any other American jockey. In February 1965, he won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award for being the best jockey in 1964. He rode in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes on two occasions, his best finish a fourth in both in 1967 aboard Reason to Hail.

His best-known mounts were Hall of Famers Affectionately and Gun Bow, with one of his most famous victories coming in the 1964 Woodward Stakes when he rode Gun Bow to a win over the legendary five-time Horse of the Year Kelso.

Honors Blum was Jewish and was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1986, and the following year into the United States Racing Hall of Fame.