Shoemaker Bids Early Farewell : Horse racing: Jockey skips final race at Bay Meadows because of ailing knee. The ride that turned out to be his last at that track ends up in the winner’s circle.

Bill Shoemaker bowed out a winner in his last race at Bay Meadows on Monday, but he was forced to bid the crowd of 8,032 an early farewell.

After chalking up win No. 8,839 in the sixth race, racing’s winningest jockey was limping noticeably and was forced to scratch from the eighth race, an overnight handicap with a purse of $24,000 named “The William Shoemaker.”

“My left knee is really hurting,” Shoemaker said. “It’s an old injury that has been bothering me off and on for the past five years. It’s been operated on twice. It’s really tight, and I don’t feel like falling off any horses.”

Before the seventh race, Shoemaker, flanked in the winner’s circle by his wife, Cindy, and 9-year-old daughter, Amanda, was presented a pair of cuff links with horse heads, hand-carved out of blue lapis stone, by James P. Conn, president and chief executive officer of the Bay Meadows Racing Assn.

After explaining to the crowd why he wouldn’t ride in the eighth race, he said, “I’ve had many fond memories of the races I’ve had here at Bay Meadows.”

Shoemaker’s mounts went off as the favorites in the two races in which he competed Monday.

In the fourth race, over one mile, 6-5 Rare Sweep was second, 3 1/2 lengths behind Tip A Sou, the third betting choice at 6-1.

The sixth race was over 1 1/2 miles, the first time this season that a race that distance has been run at Bay Meadows. Royal Relative, who went off at even money with Shoemaker aboard, took the lead just after the turn entering the backstretch and beat Nipsy’s Pride, the second betting choice at 9-2, by three lengths.

When asked if riding a 1 1/2-mile race feels longer these days, 58-year-old Shoemaker replied, “You ain’t kidding.”

It was obvious Shoemaker was hurting when he dismounted, but he still took time to sign autographs and pose for pictures in the winner’s circle. Fans were lined up at least four deep along the rail. For nearly an hour before the first post, Shoemaker signed autographs.

Sales were brisk at a concession booth near the Bay Meadows entrance where Shoemaker lapel pins went for $5, hats for $10, T-shirts for $13 and sweat shirts for $20.

Shoemaker met with the media before the first race. He recalled with fondness the first of 1,006 stakes races he won--the George Marshall Claiming Stakes on Oct. 26, 1949, aboard Al at Bay Meadows--and the majors ($100,000 or over) he won at Bay Meadows--the William P. Kyne in 1955, the California Juvenile Stakes in 1971, the Fall Festival Juvenile in 1984 and the Bay Meadows Derby in 1986. On Oct. 13, 1950, at Bay Meadows, Shoemaker had eight mounts and won six races.