Hall of Fame jockey Bobby Ussery, a Kentucky Derby winner who was ranked fifth in career earnings when he retired in 1974, has died in South Florida, according to a Nov. 17 Gulfstream Park release.

Ussery, a native of Vian, Okla., was 88.

Ussery won the 1967 Kentucky Derby aboard 30-1 longshot Proud Clarion. It was a mount Ussery picked up after his original Derby mount, Reflected Glory, couldn’t make the race because of sore shins. He won the 1960 Preakness Stakes with Florida Derby winner Bally Ache.

Sports Illustrated called Ussery’s ride aboard Proud Clarion “one of the best in Derby history.” Ussery thought he might have a good weekend in Louisville.

“I might have won it with Bally Ache in 1960, but we finished second,” he said. “Then I thought I’d win it this year with Reflected Glory. When that didn’t work out, I still figured – just a hunch, I guess – that it was my year, no matter what horse I rode. I had a real hunch.”

Read America’s Best Racing’s Legends Profile of Bobby Ussery

Bobby Ussery at Delaware Park. (BloodHorse Library/Delaware Park)

Ussery’s riding career started with a win aboard his first mount, Reticule, in the 1951 Thanksgiving Day Handicap at Fair Grounds. In 1959 he rode a record 215 winners. In 1960 he rode juvenile champion male Hail to Reason and won the Preakness, Flamingo Stakes, and Florida Derby on Bally Ache. He also crossed the finish line first in the 1968 Derby, but his mount, Dancer’s Image, was later disqualified.

Other notable wins for Ussery came in the Alabama Stakes, Travers Stakes, Hopeful Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes, Canadian International Stakes, and Queen’s Plate, as well as the Wood Memorial Stakes twice and the Whitney Handicap. Ussery joined Queen Elizabeth II in the Woodbine winner’s circle after his victory aboard New Providence in the 1959 Queen’s Plate.

Ussery was known for his unorthodox style of riding high in the saddle, almost standing up in the stirrups. When he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1980, he said this style allowed him to see the competition and he didn’t mind how it looked.

“It may not be pretty,” Ussery said. “But I figure riding is no beauty contest. I’m comfortable and it’s getting results. Why change? I don’t worry how I look as long as I get results.”

He would see his way to the winner’s circles of many of North America’s great races.

Arrangements are pending. Expressions of sympathy may be made in Ussery’s memory to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund at pdjf.org.

Triple Crown Highlights

Won the 1967 Kentucky Derby – Proud Clarion

Won the 1960 Preakness Stakes – Bally Ache

Other Highlights

Won the Brooklyn Handicap – 1963, 1971

Won the Wood Memorial Stakes – 1965, 1968

Won the Whitney Handicap – 1957

Won the Alabama Stakes – 1958

Won the Travers Stakes – 1958

Won the Queen’s Plate – 1959