[1] Widely known as "Buddy", Leon Hass began riding in 1931 mainly at smaller tracks until his career got a boost on August 28, 1933, when he rode six winners on a single racecard at Thistledown Racecourse in Cleveland, Ohio, five of which were consecutive.
[2] In the years following that acclaimed success he would be hired to ride for prominent owners such as Hal Price Headley, Charles Howard, Calumet Farm and members of the Phipps family at the big tracks in New York, Kentucky, Illinois and California.
[4] During his career Buddy Haas rode in the Kentucky Derby four times with his best result a third in 1940.
[5] Battling weight gain, on May 31, 1945, Buddy Haas announced his next and last race would be the Kentucky Derby.
[6][7] Run on June 9 that year, in his fourth Derby Hass rode Air Sailor to a fourth-place finish behind winner Hoop Jr.[8]