Sonny Workman
Sport: Thoroughbred Racing
Born: May 24, 1909
Died: August 21, 1966
Town: Hoboken
Raymond Workman was born May 24, 1909 in Hoboken. The boy everyone called “Sonny” grew up in the Washington DC area after his father passed away. Sonny’s two great loves were the church and the racetrack, which of course were fundamentally incompatible. He began working at small tracks in Maryland as a teenager and by age 17 had chosen a career as a jockey over the clergy.
Sonny rode his first winner in 1926 in Akron, Ohio. He was hired by Harry Payne Whitney’s stable soon after, and rewarded the millionaire’s faith by winning the Preakness aboard Victorian. By age 21, Sonny was the nation’s winningest jockey. He claimed that honor twice more in his career, in 1932 and 1935. He earned nearly $3 million in his career, a huge number considering he was active through 1940, during the Depression.
Sonny’s favorite horse (and the favorite of New York racing fans) was Equipoise, an enormous animal that was known for being rough with the other horses. Sonny was an aggressive, risk-taker and between the two of them they were disqualified several times. In 1930, Equipoise went up against Twenty Grand in two epic races. In their first meeting, both horses set records for two-year-olds in the mile with times of 1:36. Twenty Grand won in a photo finish. In their next meeting, Equipoise got turned nearly sideways out of the gate but made up ground so fast he literally galloped out of two of his horseshoes—and won by 2 ½ lengths.
Among his most famous mounts was the legendary Sea Biscuit. Sonny replaced Red Pollard after Pollard was injured in 1938, when Seabiscuit was named Horse of the Year.
Sonny rode for the Whitney family almost his entire career. That relative security in otherwise hard times was reflected in his inability to control his appetite, and by his early 30s he was simply to heavy too be a top-notch jockey. He retired from racing and became a successful businessman and real estate investor in the DC area.
Sonny racked up 1,169 victories and finished in the money an additional 1,635 times during his 15-year riding career. In 1956, he was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame, and was similarly honored in the Jockey’s Hall of Fame a year later. He passed away in 1966 at the age of 57.
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