Racing Hall of Fame jockey Earlie Fires retired on Sunday at Arlington Park following a fifth-place finish with Manchu Prince in the fifth race.

Fires, 61, ended his professional career ranked ninth by career wins among North American jockeys with 6,470 victories during his 43-year career.

“I wanted to retire on my terms,” Fires said. “I don’t have any regrets. I will miss the Illinois people, especially at Arlington Park. This crowd has always been a good crowd and I love that more than anything in the world. I’m going to travel but I’ll still be around to visit.”

Despite not winning a Triple Crown race or a Breeders’ Cup race, Fires earned a reputation as one of the Midwest’s most consistent winners. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2001.

Fires won his first race as a 17-year-old apprentice jockey at Oaklawn Park in 1965. He went on to win 224 races that year and was the nation’s leading apprentice by wins. He subsequently moved his tack north to suburban Chicago, where he still lives today.

Fires was a mainstay at Arlington Park, winning riding titles in 1966, ’69, ’75, ’79, ’83, and ’84. Fires also won riding titles at Hawthorne Race Course, Hialiah Park, Gulfstream Park, Calder Race Course, Churchill Downs, Keeneland Race Course, and Miles Park.

A tribute to his durability and longevity, Fires won racing titles in four different decades at those various tracks.

“I ride as hard as anyone can ride,” Fires said prior to his induction into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2001. “I may not be the best rider, I may not be riding the best horse, and I may not win, but I give that horse every chance to win.”

Fires said the best horse he rode was probably In Reality, who won six stakes as a three-year-old in 1967 but was overshadowed by legendary Hall of Famers Dr. Fager and Damascus. In Reality finished second to Damascus in the 1967 Preakness Stakes and American Derby and was the runner-up to Dr. Fager in the New Hampshire Sweepstakes Classic that year.

In 1991, Fires won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which honors a rider whose career and personal character reflect positively on themselves and the sport. He was elected into the Racing Hall of Fame ten years later.

Arlington Park chairman emeritus Richard L. Duchossois said the track will hold Earlie Fires Day on May 1, 2009.

Fires was born in Rivervale, Arkansas and is one of 11 children. He has two daughters and one son with his wife of 38 years, Kathy, who died from cancer in October 2005.
(Source: Thoroughbred Times)