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“I told my dad that I felt like I had an upper hand in things; I already knew the do’s and don’ts...”
– Cody Smith
HIS BEGINNINGS
Cody inherited the jockey gene through his father, Rodger Smith, who rode for more than 30 years. “I grew up in the jocks’ room from the time I was old enough to know better until I started riding,” Cody says.
Testing the industry waters at age 14,
he cleaned stalls one summer for a trainer Rodger rode for. “I figured out that wasn’t really for me,” he says. But he paid attention in the jock’s room. “I told my dad that I felt like I had an upper hand in things; I already knew the do’s and don’ts—I saw and listened to everything everyone complained about and tried not to do those things when I started.”
Throughout his high school years, Cody galloped horses, then attended Carl Albert State College in Poteau, Oklahoma — for about a semester. “I figured I wanted to ride racehorses more,” he says.
About a year after he graduated from high school, he rode in his first race. “From the get-go, a lot of people doubted I’d ride very long because I’m tall, I’m 5’10”. But I’ve always had it in my head that I’d just work my
butt off to prove
everybody wrong!”
He’s done just that: his first
win, at Blue Ribbon Downs in Feb. 2005, was the OQHRA Maiden Futurity trials, riding Okie Dokey Meabeeahit. “I turned 20 in January and won that in February riding for trainer Johnny Terrell,” he says.
In his 17 years as a jockey, his combined Quarter Horse, Paint and Appaloosa
wins now total nearly 1,300, and he
tops the board of all-time leading Paint
and Appaloosa riders by money earned ($4,669,834), and almost by wins, too. “When I passed G.R. Carter for money earned (Paints & Appaloosas), I told him that any time you pass G.R. Carter in anything, you’ve done something!” he says with admiration.
LIFE AS A JOCK
Cody has ridden many great horses during his career, including
Danjer, Uncle D, Hes Relentless and Painted Turnpike APHA.
Danjer, by FDD Dynasty and out of the Take Off Jess
daughter Shez Jess Toxic, has won $1,843,040 with 18 firsts
from 30 starts. Ridden by Cody (Smith) beginning
in his 4-year-old year,
the 2016 gelding crossed the wire first
in the Canterbury Park Championship Challenge-G3 in 2020, ran second in the
All American Gold Cup-G1, and went on that year to win the Downs At Albuquerque Fall Championship-G1 and the AQHA Challenge Championship-G1. The following year, Cody piloted him to a win in the Debbie Schauf Remington Park Invitational Championship-G1, the Canterbury Park Championship Challenge-G3, the All American Gold Cup-G1, the AQHA Challenge Championship-G1 and the Refrigerator Invitational Championship-G1, and ran second in the Leo Stakes-G1
and the Downs At Albuquerque Fall Championship-G1. So far this year, he has repeated his Debbie Schauf Invitational, Canterbury Park Championship Challenge and The Downs at Albuquerque Fall Championship-G1 wins.
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SPEEDHORSE October 2022
Cody’s father Rodger Smith being honored as the 1993 Blue Ribbons Downs Quarter Horse Jockey of the Meet.
Speedhorse Archives
Cody and G.R. Carter at the
2021 OQHRA Champion Awards Banquet.
Myriam Maynard, Speedhorse