caption updated death_date birth_place awards race birth_date honours horses image article_title name occupation
johnny stakes loftus aboard sir barton at the 1919 preakness march 5 , 2007 march 23 , 1976 chicago , illinois , united states united states champion jockey by earnings -lrb- 1919 -rrb- hopeful -lrb- 1916 -rrb- travers stakes -lrb- 1916 -rrb- toboggan handicap stakes -lrb- 1916 , 1919 -rrb- withers stakes -lrb- 1916 , -lrb- 1919 -rrb- gazelle handicap -lrb- 1917 -rrb- kentucky oaks -lrb- 1913 1917 -rrb- stuyvesant handicap -lrb- 1918 , 1919 -rrb- remsen , stakes -lrb- 1918 -rrb- fall highweight handicap -lrb- 1918 -rrb- 1919 empire city handicap -lrb- 1919 -rrb- tremont stakes -lrb- 1919 -rrb- -rrb- united states triple crown -lrb- 1919 -rrb- jerome handicap october 13 , 1895 united -rrb- states ' racing hall of fame -lrb- 1959 war , man o ' war cloud , regret , pan zareta , pompoon sirbarton-johnny loftus-1919preakness . jpg johnny loftus
 johnny loftus jockey/trainer
johnny loftus

john p. loftus -lrb- october 13 , 1895 -- march 23 , 1976 -rrb- was an american thoroughbred horse racing hall of fame jockey .
born in chicago , illinois , johnny loftus was the first jockey to win the united states triple crown of thoroughbred racing .
during his career , between 1909 and 1919 , he won 580 races out of the 2,449 he competed in , for a very notable 23.7 % success rate .
in 1916 he won the travers stakes and withers stakes on `` spur '' then captured the kentucky derby aboard george smith .
in 1917 he won the kentucky oaks with the filly sunbonnet and the next year he rode war cloud to victory in the preakness stakes .
as well , loftus rode man o ' war to victory in eight races , and to the only defeat in the horse 's career , a second-place finish at the sanford memorial stakes .
for trainer h. guy bedwell and canadian owner j. k. l. ross , who owned a farm in maryland , in 1919 johnny loftus rode sir barton to victory in the kentucky derby then only four days later won the preakness stakes .
they went on to win the belmont stakes becoming the first-ever american triple crown winner .
loftus ended up as 1919 's top money-winning jockey in the u.s.a. and retired at the end of the racing season to become a horse trainer .
in 1938 and 1939 , he enjoyed success as the trainer of pompoon who was voted american champion two-year-old colt in 1936 .
in 1959 , he was inducted into the national museum of racing and hall of fame .
johnny loftus died in carlsbad , california in 1976 .
