2024 – Jockey
Champion Canadian jockey, record setter, award winner and now Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Richard Grubb was fast out of the gate when he obtained his jockey license as a teenager. In the hey-days of racing in Ontario, the late 1960s and early 70s, Richard was one of the first of an influx of talented Canadian jockeys who took the sport by storm. In his day, he rode against the likes of future CHRHF Members Sandy Hawley, Hugo Dittfach, Robin Platts and Avelino Gomez, to name a few.
Richard, who was born in Kitchener, ON in 1948 and raised in Ridgeway, didn’t know much about horse racing until he visited Fort Erie racetrack at the age of 14. He immediately became hooked on the horses and the excitement of the sport and worked his way from hotwalker to groom to rider in a few years.
He was a sensation as an apprentice, winning titles at Greenwood in the spring and Woodbine and in the summer. A short time after beginning his jockey career in 1967, Richard led all Canadian jockeys with 230 victories.
That same year, Richard won seven straight races on an eight-race card at Woodbine, a feat that has never been beaten.
Richard travelled the world to represent Canada in various jockey competitions in Europe and South Africa. In the same year, he rode Jean Louis Levesque‘s classy Rouletabille to a championship 3-year-old season in 1968, Viceregal to an undefeated season for E.P. Taylor , and in 1970, he quashed the Canadian Triple Crown bid of Almoner when he guided Mary of Scotland to victory in the Breeders’ Stakes on turf.
While he had to fight weight issues throughout his career, Richard was determined to follow his dream. Through 20 years in the saddle, Richard won over 1,600 races and he rode many of Canadian racing’s biggest stars such as Viceregal, who went unbeaten in eight races in 1968, Royal Chocolate, Dancers Image, Beldale Ball, Royal North, Dance Act and more. He rode Regent Miss to victory in the 1981 Canadian Oaks, posting the biggest upset in the history of the race at 172 to 1.
Richard rode the winners of more than 100 stakes races and after retiring in 1989, was honoured with the Avelino Gomez Award in 1997 and a place in the Greater Fort Erie Wall of Fame in 2012. Richard became an Ontario Racing Commission steward and held that position for 24 years. He served as a presiding steward when the Breeders’ Cup World Championship came to Woodbine in 1996.
Soft spoken and modest, Richard would often let his horses do the talking and for over 20 years, his mounts had a lot to say.