Edward Garrison
Riding Career: 1882-1897

A Garrison Finish

Which jockey has been written up in more books than any other? At one time he was the most famous jockey in America. How famous could the jockey be if most of you have never heard of him?

He is the only jockey whose name appears in every full-size volume of any Dictionary of the English Language. His name is Snapper Garrison. If you don't believe me, look it up.

Here's what Webster's New World Dictionary says:

Gar.ri.son finish, [after Snapper Garrison, 19th-Cen U.S. jockey] a close finish, as in a horse race, in which the winner comes from behind at the last moment.

Edward R. "Snapper" Garrison was born in New Haven, Conn., on February 9, 1868. He began working as a blacksmith's apprentice when he was 14, but being a jockey was his real dream. He soon was taken under the wing of Father Bill Daly (for whom another outdated term, "On the Bill Daly," comes), a legendary trainer who used every means available (belts, whips, etc.) to train young boys to be good riders. Daly's specialty was turning out jockeys who could get horses to the lead and keep them there. Garrison's specialty became just the opposite.

It was Daly who one day referred to Garrison as "Jack Snapper." "Snapper" Garrison earned his nickname by showing enthusiasm for the menial tasks of the stable area. The Snapper part stuck forever.

For 16 years -- from 1882 to 1897 -- Garrison became one of the most famous riders in a sport that had only become organized for the first time in this country a couple of decades earlier. Tens of thousands of people knew nothing about horse racing, but they knew the name Snapper Garrison. Snapper was known for the "Garrison finish", a whip-slashing, come-from-behind ride in which he won by a small margin. It was a heart-stopping technique that worked. He brought many folks to the track for the first time, much the way Earl Sande, Eddie Arcaro and Bill Shoemaker would do in later years. The term "Garrison finish" became part of the English language. In an era where many jockeys could make 80 or 90 pounds, Garrison battled weight all his career. Nonetheless, he won over 700 races and $2 million in purses in his 16 years riding -- huge numbers in that era. In 1894, he was paid $23,500 to ride for August Belmont -- the highest retainer ever paid for a jockey to that point.

He won most of racing's major stakes, some of them many times. He seldom rode in the mid-West. His only mount in the Kentucky Derby, a not-too-famous race back then, came in 1886 when he finished second on Blue Wing. In 1891, in the 25th Belmont race, he rode Foxford for the win.

Garrison claimed that his best mount was Tammany, on which he won the 1892 Jerome, Withers, and Lawrence Realization. He also guided Firenze to victory in the Jerome Stakes, Monmouth Oaks and Monmouth Handicap.

The 1893 American Derby was one of Garrison's most memorable races. False starts and other problems delayed the race for 90 minutes, while Garrison rested his mount, Boundless, by standing on the rail. Garrison's skillful manipulation of the start paid off; Boundless won the race by eight lengths. He and four other jockeys were fined $250 each. It still stands as the record for the longest delayed start of an American race. The 1893 Derby, worth $50,000 to winner Boundless, was the second-richest race in nineteenth-century America.

In the years following his retirement as a jockey, Garrison served in many capacities on the racetrack, including owner, trainer, steward, starter, official and agent. His popularity even won him a brief career on the New York stage.

He died of heart failure at his home on Long Island in October 1930 at age 62. He had suffered a mild stroke several days earlier. While many famous jockeys of his time died in virtual obscurity, Garrison's obituary in the November 1, 1930 edition of The Thoroughbred Record noted that he had a "wide circle of friends throughout the country."

For most of the first four or five decades of the 20th Century, there was hardly a sportwriter or (later) sports radio broadcaster who did not regularly use the term "Garrison finish" in sports stories. When Babe Ruth hit a homer in the 9th inning to beat the Washington Senators, the newspaper reporter would write that the Yankees won in a "Garrison finish." Those were the heydays when horse racing was a part of mainstream American sports.

Back in the 1960’s and early 70’s, every once in a while you would see a sports story written by an old sports writer who still used the term, "Garrison finish." Sadly, there are few sports writers around today who would even know what the term means -- and far fewer readers.

Edward "Snapper" Garrison was elected to the Hall of Fame at the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, NY, the first year of inductions (1955).

Garrison and Tenny (2nd) in a match race with Salvator, 1890

Information provided by Barndog of GSR