Deshawn L. Parker facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Deshawn Parker |
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|---|---|
| Occupation | Jockey |
| Born | January 8, 1971 Cincinnati, Ohio, US |
| Career wins | 6,000 |
| Major racing wins | |
| selected stakes wins: Autumn Leaves Stakes (2005) Labor Day Stakes (2007) Mountaineer Mile Stakes (2007, 2008, 2013) Best of Ohio Juvenile Stakes (2008) Hancock County Handicap (2008, 2009) Mountaineer Fall Stakes (2008, 2009) Panhandle Handicap (2008) Senator Robert C. Byrd Memorial Handicap (2011) John W. Galbreath Stakes (2012) Rose DeBartolo Memorial Stakes (2012) Miss Ohio Stakes (2012) Hoover Stakes (2012) Mountaineer Juvenile Fillies Stakes (2012) Cleveland Kindergarten Stakes (2012) Firecracker Stakes (2012) Royal North Stakes (2013) Tom Ridge Stakes (2014) West Virginia Governor's Stakes (2015) Green Carpet Stakes (2015) Howard B. Noonan Stakes (2015) Sam Houston Sprint Cup Stakes (2015, 2016) San Jacinto Stakes (2016) Indiana Futurity (2017) Crown Ambassador Stakes (2017) Hillsdale Stakes (2017) Florence Henderson Stakes (2017) Yellow Rose Stakes (2017) Spirit of Texas Stakes (2017) San Jacinto Turf Stakes (2017) |
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| Racing awards | |
| United States Champion Jockey by wins (2010, 2011) | |
| Honors | |
| Sam Houston Race Park Champion Jockey (2015) | |
| Significant horses | |
| Bernie Blue, La Chica Rica, Marina's Legacy, Texas Chrome | |
Deshawn L. Parker (born January 8, 1971) is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He is known for being one of the tallest jockeys. Deshawn Parker has won the title of United States Champion Jockey by wins twice. He is also one of only a few jockeys in North American Thoroughbred racing history to win 5,000 and then 6,000 races.
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Deshawn Parker's Racing Journey
Deshawn Parker started his professional riding career in 1988. He is quite tall for a jockey, standing at 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 meters). In his first five years, from 1988 to 1992, he won a total of 60 races.
Improving His Skills
The next year, in 1993, Deshawn Parker won 72 races. This was more than he had won in his first five years combined. He continued to get better each year. By 2002, he started winning over 200 races in a single year.
In 2008, he reached a new milestone, winning more than 300 races. He kept this high level of success for five years in a row. In 2011, he achieved an amazing 400 wins in one year.
National Champion Jockey
In 2010, Deshawn Parker won 377 races. This earned him his first national title as the top jockey in the United States. He was the first African-American jockey to win this title since James "Soup" Perkins did it in 1895.
Parker won his second national title in 2011 with 400 wins. He has won more races than any other African-American jockey in history.
Record-Breaking Rides
On May 6, 2012, Deshawn Parker had an incredible day. He won six races on one racecard at Mountaineer Racetrack. This track in New Cumberland, West Virginia, was his main base for many years. He is the all-time leading jockey in wins at Mountaineer Racetrack.
In 2012, the Jockeys' Guild honored him with the Laffit Pincay Jr. Award. This award recognizes jockeys who show great integrity and sportsmanship. He has also been a finalist twice for the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. This award is given to jockeys who show high standards of personal and professional conduct.
