William "Willie/Smokey" Saunders (April 13, 1915 - July 30, 1986) was a Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame was established in 1976 at the Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario to honor those who have made a significant contribution to the sport of harness and thoroughbred horse racing in Canada....

 jockey

Jockey

A jockey is an athlete who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing.-Etymology:...

 in Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

 who is one of only ten jockeys to ever win the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing

United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing

In the United States, the "Triple Crown" is usually the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing, a series of three Thoroughbred horse races for three-year-old horses run in May and early June of each year consisting of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes.While Daily Racing Form...

.

Saunders was known as "Willie" but also the news media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

 frequently refers to him as "Smokey/Smoky."

Born in Bozeman, Montana

Bozeman, Montana

Bozeman is a city in and the county seat of Gallatin County, Montana, United States, in the southwestern part of the state. The 2010 census put Bozeman's population at 37,280 making it the fourth largest city in the state. It is the principal city of the Bozeman micropolitan area, which consists...

, at age eight his family moved to Calgary

Calgary

Calgary is a city in the Province of Alberta, Canada. It is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. He learned to ride in Alberta and in Montana where he returned for his high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

 years. Saunders earned his first win at Tanforan Racetrack

Tanforan Racetrack

Tanforan Racetrack in San Bruno, California was a thoroughbred horse racing facility that operated from September 4, 1899 to July 31, 1964. Tanforan was constructed to serve a clientele from the nearby city of San Francisco. The facility was named after Toribio Tanforan, the grandson-in-law of Jose...

 in northern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 on April 14, 1932. Competing at tracks in southern California, Alberta-born U.S. Racing Hall of Fame

National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame was founded in 1950 in Saratoga Springs, New York, to honor the achievements of American thoroughbred race horses, jockeys, and trainers...

 jockey George Woolf

George Woolf

George Monroe Woolf , nicknamed "The Ice Man", was a Canadian-born thoroughbred race horse jockey and the namesake of the annual jockey's award given by the United States Jockeys' Guild....

 tutored Saunders on riding. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/29801843.html?dids=29801843:29801843&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+29%2C+1998&author=BILL+CHRISTINE&pub=Los+Angeles+Times&desc=OMAHA%2C+1935%3A+THIRD+TRIPLE+CROWN+WINNER%3B+Omaha+Struck+Pay+Dirt+Long+Before+Nebraska+Football+Did+Series%3A+CROWNING+MOMENTS+IN+HORSE+RACING+HISTORY&pqatl=google

During his career, Willie Saunders rode for prominent owners such as Wheatley Stable

Wheatley Stable

Wheatley Stable was the nom de course for the thoroughbred horse racing partnership formed by Gladys Mills Phipps and her brother, Ogden L. Mills. The horses were raised at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky.-History:...

, Hal Price Headley and William Woodward

William Woodward, Sr.

William Woodward, Sr. was an American banker and major owner and breeder in thoroughbred horse racing.-Background:...

. He won the 1934 Rochambeau Handicap at Narragansett Park aboard Woodward's Belair Stud

Belair Stud

Belair Stud was an American thoroughbred horse racing stable and breeding farm founded by Provincial Governor of Maryland, Samuel Ogle in 1747 in Collington, Prince Georges County, Maryland in Colonial America.-Colonial Period:...

 colt Faireno

Faireno

Faireno was an American Champion Thoroughbred racehorse. He was bred and raced by William Woodward's Belair Stud. Out of the mare, Minerva, he was sired by Chatterton, a son of U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee Fair Play who was also the sire of Man o' War.Faireno's race conditioning was the...

 who was trained by "Sunny Jim" Fitzsimmons. It would be Fitzsimmons who chose to put Saunders aboard the colt Omaha

Omaha (horse)

Omaha was a United States thoroughbred horse racing champion.Foaled at Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, he was the son of 1930 U.S. Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox and the mare Flambino. Omaha was the third horse to win the Triple Crown having won as a three-year-old in 1935.Omaha was an...

, and in 1935 they achieved racing immortality by winning the U.S. Triple Crown with victories in the Kentucky Derby

Kentucky Derby

The Kentucky Derby is a Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbred horses, held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The race is one and a quarter mile at Churchill Downs. Colts and geldings carry...

, Preakness Stakes

Preakness Stakes

The Preakness Stakes is an American flat Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs on dirt. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds ; fillies 121 lb...

, and Belmont Stakes

Belmont Stakes

The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes Thoroughbred horse race held every June at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is a 1.5-mile horse race, open to three year old Thoroughbreds. Colts and geldings carry a weight of 126 pounds ; fillies carry 121 pounds...

. http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/9720/triple-crown-heroes-omaha In 1935, Saunders also won the inaugural edition of the Santa Anita Oaks

Santa Anita Oaks

Santa Anita Oaks is an American Grade I Thoroughbred horse race held annually in mid March at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Open to three-year-old fillies willing to race 8.5 furlongs on the dirt, it currently offers a purse of $300,000.Inaugurated in 1935 as a race for two-year-olds,...

 aboard Dunlin Lady.

On June 30, 1936, Willie Saunders married Pauline Waterbury of Detroit. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FrAJAAAAIBAJ&sjid=6jEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3095,6748221&dq=smokey+saunders&hl=en Weight problems interrupted his career as did the outbreak of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 when he joined the United States Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 and served overseas in the Pacific Theater

Pacific Theater of Operations

The Pacific Theater of Operations was the World War II area of military activity in the Pacific Ocean and the countries bordering it, a geographic scope that reflected the operational and administrative command structures of the American forces during that period...

. During his four years in the military, a bout of malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...

, contracted while overseas, resulted in considerable weight loss that allowed him to resume his career in racing once the war ended. In 1948 Saunders rode Bovard to victory in the Louisiana Derby

Louisiana Derby

The Louisiana Derby is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Usually run in early March, the race is open to horses, age three, willing to race 11/8 miles on the dirt. A Grade II event, it currently offers a purse of...

 then rode the colt to a third-place finish in the Preakness Stakes.

Saunders retired in 1950 and later served as a racing official at tracks in Florida, Illinois and New Jersey.

When his riding career ended in 1950, Willie Saunders worked as a trainer for a time before becoming a placing judge at racetracks in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

 and Calder Race Course

Calder Race Course

Calder Casino & Race Course is a casino and horse racetrack in Miami Gardens, Florida in the United States.-History:In the mid-1960s, real estate developer Stephen A. Calder envisioned summertime racing in Florida; in 1965, on the advice of Mr. Calder, the Florida Legislature approved a bill...

 in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

. Living in Hallandale, Florida, five weeks after being diagnosed with cancer of the brain and lungs

Lung cancer

Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

, Willie Saunders died in a Naples, Florida

Naples, Florida

Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of July 1, 2007, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's population at 21,653. Naples is a principal city of the Naples–Marco Island Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated total population of 315,839 on July 1, 2007...

 hospital on July 30, 1986 at age 71.

On its formation in 1976, Willie Saunders was inducted in the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame

The Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame was established in 1976 at the Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario to honor those who have made a significant contribution to the sport of harness and thoroughbred horse racing in Canada....