William Harmatz

William Harmatz (February 9, 1931 – January 27, 2011) was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the 1959 Preakness Stakes aboard Royal Orbit.

He was still a child when his family relocated to Boyle Heights[2] in East Los Angeles, California where he was a star gymnast at Theodore Roosevelt High School.

As a teenager, he began exercising Thoroughbred racehorses which would lead to a professional riding career beginning in 1953 at the Agua Caliente Racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico.

[3] In 1957, he was part of a rare triple dead heat at Hollywood Park Racetrack with fellow jockeys George Taniguchi and Bill Shoemaker.

[4] Harmatz appeared as the character Nick Pressy in a 1971 episode of the television series Mission: Impossible titled Run for the Money.