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The
Ultimate Honorby Diane Rice
CODY SMITH EARNS COVETED SAM THOMPSON MEMORIAL JOCKEY AWARD
Becoming a top jockey takes courage, dedication, talent, and an epic
work ethic. To also be voted by
your rider peers as a jockey whose personal character reflects positively on your sport adds a high level of respect and admiration to that bullet list of requirements. This year, Quarter Horse jockeys chose Cody Rodger Smith of Vian, Oklahoma, as the jockey who checks off all the boxes on that list, naming him the 2022 Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey Award winner.
“I was surprised!” he says. “I thought it was cool just to be up for it, much less to win it. To be voted on by my peers is pretty cool; it’s a great feeling and an honor, for sure.
“I’d met Sam a few times when I was a kid, with my dad in the jocks’ room,” Cody adds. “He won a lot of races — big races — and when you go back and look at pictures of him, you never see him without a smile on his face. He was a stand-up person, a class act, and a great human being in general.”
48 SPEEDHORSE October 2022
Linda Earley, Speedhorse