Columns, Opinions
This Week in Texas History: Jockey suffers career-threatening spill
By Bartee Haile
No one who saw Willie Shoemaker take that terrible tumble at Santa Anita Park on Jan. 23, 1968 would have believed the tough little Texan would ever ride in another horse race.
Life had always been a struggle for Billie Lee Shoemaker since the day he was born at Fabens, Texas downriver from El Paso. The doctor who delivered the three-pound baby in August 1931 predicted he would be dead by morning.
According to family folklore, Bill’s grandmother wrapped him in blankets and f...