Page 55 - COVER_October2022.indd

“I tell God all the time that I’m on His plan; when he tells me he has something else for me to do, I’ll shut up and listen. But if He keeps giving me fast horses, I’m going to keep on riding them!” – Cody Smith
Los Alamitos room representative, and a council member of the Los Alamitos division of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America.
The recipient of each year’s Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey Award is chosen by votes cast by fellow jockeys at tracks that hold American Quarter Horse racing. Active jockeys receive ballots and vote for the person whose personal character on and off the track reflects positively on Quarter Horse racing.
This year’s nominees were: Jesus Rios Ayala, Berkley Packer and Cody Rodger Smith. Previous winners include Roy Brooks
(2011), Gilbert Ortiz (2012), G. R. Carter,
Jr. (2013), Cody Jensen (2014), Eddie Garcia (2015), Ramon Sanchez (2016), Cesar deAlba (2017), Ricky Ramirez (2018), Esgar Ramirez (2019) and Jimmy Dean Brooks (2021). Due to the closure of many tracks in 2020 because
of the COVID-19 pandemic, the award was suspended that year.
In addition to a specially designed signed and numbered limited-edition bronze statue of Sam Thompson and Champion Corona Kool by artist Linda Manion made exclusively for the Sam Thompson
Award, Cody
received a
belt buckle
commemorating
the award.
His name will
also be added
to a permanent
plaque housed
in the American
Quarter Horse
Association’s
Racing Hallway in Amarillo, Texas, along with the most distinguished horses and awards.
“I tell God all the time that I’m on His plan; when he tells me he has something else for me to do, I’ll shut up and listen. But if He keeps giving me fast horses, I’m going to keep on riding them!”
AQHA
Paint & Appaloosa
Total
(as of Sept. 6, 2022)
8,551 935 979 985 $16,632,842 2,303 348 319 281 $4,669,834
10,854 1,283 1,298 1,266 $21,302,676
Cody Smith’s Jockey Stats
Jockeys Guild Regional Manager John Beech with Cody Smith and Speedhorse’s John Bachelor at the Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey Award ceremony at Ruidoso.
Members of the Ruidoso Downs jockey colony with 2022 award recipients Cody Smith.
SPEEDHORSE October 2022 53
Linda Earley, Speedhorse Linda Earley, Speedhorse