Page 85 - Speedhorse June 2019

Steve Harris 1983 All American Futurity Winning Jockey
It would be perfectly understandable – natural, even – for Steve Harris to carry some unpleasant thoughts about his career as a jockey. After all, Harris was one of the top Quarter Horse jockeys in the country when it all ended in an instant on May 9, 1986. On that day, Harris filled in for a last minute ride in the last race of the card at Blue Ribbon Downs, only to get thrown from his horse and suffer a broken back that paralyzed him below the waist.
Does Harris have memories, both good and wistful, of his time in the irons? Sure.
Bitterness? Nope.
“I have good memories because I made a
lot of friends,” said Harris, who now works as
a car salesman in Arkansas. “I miss it all the time. I never got nervous over big races. They were more fun to win, I guess. That rush you got when you came out of the gates. Competing and winning is what I miss. You don’t get that when you sell a car.”
“IT WASN’T EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE ME.” Harris was 25 years old at the time of the
accident. By then, he had established himself as one of the most promising up-and-coming riders in
the sport. In 1981, he won the first running of the Heritage Place Futurity with Jumbo Pacific and the West Texas Sun Country Futurity with Greybon. Three years prior to the accident, in 1983, he won the All American Futurity at 14-1 odds aboard
On A High. Trips to the winner’s circle followed in more big stakes: the 1984 Rainbow Futurity on Champion Heavenly and the 1985 All American Derby also aboard Heavenly, among others.
That success was spawned from humble beginnings in the industry. At the age of 12, Harris was working as a runner for the steward’s tower at
a racetrack. By 14, he was riding unofficial races at brush tracks in Arkansas and Oklahoma. Two years after that, he spent the summer cooling off horses after workouts and then galloping them early in the morning at Arlington Racetrack in Illinois.
SPEEDHORSE, June 2019 83
“I remember flying through the air thinking, this is gonna hurt.”
- Steve Harris