Fires says goodbye to riding after more than 43 years

Veteran rider Earlie Fires retired on Sunday (Four Footed Fotos)

Hall of Fame jockey Earlie Fires hung up his tack Sunday after guiding Manchu

Prince (Gone West) to a fifth-place finish in the 5TH race at Arlington Park,

where he is the track's all-time leading rider with 2,886 victories.

According to figures from Equibase Company, Fires, 61, retires with 6,470

tallies, placing him ninth on the all-time list of the sport's winningest

riders. After more than 43 years in the saddle, his mounts earned $86,392,977.

Fires was greeted in the winner's circle for the final time by members of his

family, fellow jockeys and members of the Arlington Park staff, including

chairman emeritus Richard L. Duchossois.

Family, friends, jockeys and Arlington staff surrounded Fires during his retirement celebration (Four Footed Fotos)

Duchossois added that an Earlie Fires Day will be held at Arlington Park

during the 2009 season which starts on May 1.

A native of Rivervale, Arkansas, Fires took out his jockey's license in 1964

and won his first race on March 6, 1965, at Oaklawn Park aboard Carnation Kid.

Fires went on to become the nation's leading apprentice rider that season with

224 victories.

Fires eventually became a mainstay on the Chicago circuit, garnering six

Arlington Park titles (1966, 1969 [tie], 1975, 1979, 1983 and 1984) as well as

multiple riding crowns at Hawthorne.

He also was leading rider at Hialeah Park, Gulfstream Park, Calder, Churchill

Downs, Keeneland and Miles Park, and he has the distinction of riding in five

different decades -- capturing riding titles in four of those.

Fires received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1991 and he was

inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame at Saratoga in 2001.