Triple Crown series:Kentucky Derby (1979)Preakness Stakes (1979)Ronald Franklin (December 20, 1959 – March 8, 2018) was an American jockey.
At the age of only nineteen, he rode the champion racehorse Spectacular Bid to win the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.
[3] Because he was so small in stature (4 foot 7 inches or 1.40 m tall and weighed 72 pounds),[4] the coach would insert him into the line-up, hoping to draw a base on balls.
[1][failed verification] Franklin had to put up with pushing and shoving and jokes about his size, but he fought back and learned to be tough.
[1][failed verification] Franklin then became an exercise rider, and then went to a training center in Middleburg, Virginia, where he learned to ride yearlings.
[6] Two weeks later, Franklin and Spectacular Bid won the Preakness Stakes and became the favorite to win the Triple Crown.
On May 22, three days after the Preakness, he was fined $100 for whipping a horse called Big Vision on the head and kicking him in the belly after coming fifth in a race at Pimlico.
[7] However, the cause of Spectacular Bid's loss was actually a safety pin he had stepped on in the days before the race, which hurt his hoof.
After the Belmont Stakes, Franklin was taken off Spectacular Bid and replaced by Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker.