SANTA ANITA : Stakes Race Feb. 3 Will Be Shoemaker’s Final Ride

Santa Anita officials have scheduled a special $100,000 stakes race on Feb. 3 for Bill Shoemaker’s final ride.

The track announced Sunday that the race, called “The Legend’s Last Ride,” will be one mile on the turf for 4-year-olds and up. Shoemaker, 58, has won 8,833 races in a career covering six decades.

Shoemaker and his agent will choose his mount.

Racing Secretary Tom Robbins talked to trainers before determining that the mile on grass for older horses was the most likely category available to form a full field.

Nominations close Jan. 26 with weights to be assigned on Jan. 30. The race, with pari-mutuel betting, will be run as the fifth race on the program. The regular feature that day is the $200,000 La Canada Stakes for 4-year-old fillies.

Shoemaker’s final appearance required orchestration by track officials because the farewell date was selected in advance in order to be televised by ABC.

In 1966, former champion Johnny Longden rode his final race with a victory on 6-1 shot George Royal in the San Juan Capistrano Handicap, an annual Santa Anita feature.

When Shoemaker bids farewell, the conditions for his only race of the afternoon will carry an unusual contingency clause.

“This race will be Bill Shoemaker’s final ride,” the nomination blank reads. “In the event that his mount is withdrawn prior to the running of the race, any one of the remaining entrants’ jockeys will be subject to replacement by Bill Shoemaker. The undersigned agrees to the aforementioned conditions that the undersigned’s horse may be ridden by Bill Shoemaker.”

The contingency of a backup mount extends up to the start of the race, Robbins said. Shoemaker will be on his first choice at entry time but also will indicate his second and third choices, which will be made known to the public at that time.

There were no such special conditions for Longden when George Royal provided his last ride and last winner. Longden made the decision to quit riding earlier that week but didn’t announce his retirement until after he won with George Royal.

Longden’s final race was voted by the media as the most memorable event in the track’s history.

Shoemaker has been on a farewell tour that has taken him to three continents and 49 tracks. On Saturday, Shoemaker won the $50,000 Hallandale Handicap at Gulfstream Park, his final race on the East Coast.