How far would you go to make your dreams come true?
On June 4th, 1923, a 22 year old jockey named Frank Hayes
sat nervously on his horse as they got ready for the race to start.
This was going to be Frank’s first ever race,
cause before this he had actually just been a trainer.
But he had always dreamed of being a jockey.
And so with his knuckles tightly gripped around the reins,
the starting gun fired and they were off.
So Frank and Sweet Kiss got right behind Gimme
and at some point they almost nearly collided with Gimme.
But then miraculously Frank swerved around Gimme
and he and Sweet Kiss crossed the finish line the winners.
However, as the crowd erupted in cheers,
Frank fell off his horse and collapsed on the ground.
It would turn out, in order for Frank to race in his first ever race,
he needed to lose a bunch of weight.
And so he had rapidly lost 12 pounds.
Right before this race, because of that weight loss,
Frank had had a heart attack and died.
Which meant when he crossed the finish line,
he became the first ever jockey to win a race while dead.