Mike E. Smith: Biography Update, Age, Personal Life, Family, Net Worth

Michael Earl Smith, born August 10, 1965, is an American jockey who has been a top rider in U.S. Thoroughbred racing since the early 1990s. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003 and holds the record for the most Breeders’ Cup wins by any jockey, with 27 victories. Smith ranks third all-time in jockey earnings, with over $356 million. In 2018, he rode Justify to a Triple Crown win, becoming the oldest jockey to earn the title at age 52.

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Personal Information

Horse Racing Career

Major Racing Wins (American Classics)

Breeders’ Cup Wins

International Race Wins

Awards & Achievements

Honors

Significant Horses

Age

Mike Smith was born on August 10, 1965, in Dexter, New Mexico. He is currently 60 years old.

Biography & Life

Smith was born in New Mexico to George Smith, who was once a jockey, and Vidoll Vallejos. His mother was 19 when he was born. His parents divorced when he was eight, and he spent most of his childhood on his maternal grandparents’ horse farm, where he started breaking horses at age eight.

Smith started riding races in New Mexico when he was 11 and got his jockey’s license at 16 in 1982. He left Dexter High School in ninth grade. Soon after, with his paternal grandfather, he began racing on a Midwestern circuit that included Hawthorne Race Course in Chicago, Ak-Sar-Ben in Omaha, and Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

On April 17, 1987, Smith married Patrice Lively, the daughter of jockey John L. Lively, in Hot Springs. They later divorced.

Smith completed his apprenticeship at Canterbury Downs in Minnesota, then moved to New York in 1989. In 2000, he made Southern California his home base.

On January 13, 2019, Mike Smith married Cynthia Naanouh in a private ceremony at St. Rita’s Catholic Church in Sierra Madre, California.

Career

In 1991, Smith became one of the few American jockeys to win a European classic when he won the Irish 2,000 Guineas riding Fourstars Allstar. That same year, he became the leading jockey in New York, a title he held from 1991 to 1993 with 330, 297, and 313 wins each year. In 1992, he rode his first Breeders’ Cup winner, Lure, in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

In 1993, Smith established himself as a top jockey by setting a North American record with 62 stakes wins in a single year. Highlights included winning the Preakness on Prairie Bayou, who was later euthanized after breaking down in the Belmont Stakes, and successfully defending the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Lure. That year, he earned his first Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey and won an ESPY Award as top jockey. In 1994, he broke his own record with 68 stakes wins, including 20 Grade I races. Many of those victories were with Holy Bull, the Eclipse Award winner for Horse of the Year. He also rode two winners in the Breeders’ Cup that year and won the Eclipse Award again. Smith later rode two Breeders’ Cup winners in both 1995 and 1997.

In 1994, Smith received the Mike Venezia Memorial Award for “extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship”.

Smith’s career risks became clear in 1998, when he suffered two major injuries. He broke his shoulder in March, which sidelined him for two months. In August, while leading at Saratoga, he broke two vertebrae in his back and had to wear a body cast for several months. He returned to racing six months after the accident. In 2000, he moved from New York to Southern California. That year, he won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which honors riders for exemplary career and personal conduct. In 2002, he was the regular rider for his second Horse of the Year, Azeri, guiding her to a win in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and also riding Vindication to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

In 2005, Smith rode Giacomo, a 50 to 1 longshot, to victory in the Kentucky Derby. This was his first Derby win and felt like a personal vindication. In 1994, he had ridden Giacomo’s sire, Holy Bull, the 2 to 1 favorite, but finished only 12th after Holy Bull was bumped at the start.

Net Worth

Smith’s successful career has earned him an estimated net worth of about $10 million.