Robert "Bobby" Nelson Ussery

Robert Bobby Nelson Ussery


Riding Career:
1951 - 1974
Birth Date:
1935
Hall of Fame:
1980
Career Mounts:
20593
Career Wins:
3,611 (17.5%)



Significant Mounts
Bally Ache, Dancer's Image, Hail To Reason, New Providence, Proud Clarion



Major Race Wins
Canadian International Stakes (1955)
Whitney Handicap (1957)
Manhattan Handicap (1957, 1967)
Sport Page Handicap (1957)
Travers Stakes (1958)
Cowdin Stakes (1958)
Alabama Stakes (1958)
Toboggan Handicap (1959)
Jamaica Handicap (1959)
Queen's Plate (1959)
Tremont Stakes (1960, 1961)
Flamingo Stakes (1960)
Florida Derby (1960)
Hopeful Stakes (1960)
Preakness Stakes (1960)
Gotham Stakes (1961, 1965)
Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (1961)
Mother Goose Stakes (1961)
Fall Highweight Handicap (1961)
Matron Stakes (1962, 1964)
Coaching Club American Oaks (1962)
Brooklyn Handicap (1963, 1971)
Lawrence Realization Stakes (1963)
Withers Stakes (1964, 1965)
Wood Memorial Stakes (1965, 1968)
Stuyvesant Handicap (1965)
Edgemere Handicap (1965)
Saratoga Special Stakes (1966)
Stymie Handicap (1966)
Morris Handicap (1966)
Kentucky Derby (1967, 1968)
Carter Handicap (1969, 1970)
Comely Stakes (1970)



Awards / Honors
United States Racing Hall of Fame (1980)

Robert N. "Bobby" Ussery is an American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey. He began his career as a jockey in 1951 and by the end of the decade had won the Travers Stakes, Whitney Stakes and Alabama Stakes. Riding Windfields Farm's colt New Providence, in 1959 he won Canada's most prestigious race, the Queen's Plate.

Ussery's best finish in the Belmont Stakes was in 1959 aboard the colt, Bagdad. In 1960 he won the Hopeful Stakes aboard that year's Eclipse Award 2-year-old champion, Hail To Reason. That same year he rode Bally Ache to victory in the Florida Derby and the Flamingo Stakes en route to a second place finish in the Kentucky Derby and then a win in the Preakness Stakes. In 1967 Ussery won the Kentucky Derby on Proud Clarion and won it again in 1968 aboard Dancer's Image. However, after phenylbutazone, a substance banned in Kentucky at that time but later sanctioned after it was proven not to affect a horse's performance, was found in Dancer's Image's post-race urine test, Dancer's Image was listed as having finished last.

Bobby Ussery retired in 1974 having won 3,611 races. In 1980, he was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.

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