Eldon Nelson
American jockey
Glen Eldon Nelson (January 28, 1927 - March 16, 2012) was an American jockey in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing who competed primarily at tracks on the East Coast of the United States and who is best known for winning the 1972 Preakness Stakes.
In 1948, Eldon Nelson married Betty Rose Coffman (1930-2005) with whom he had two children.
During a career that spanned four decades, Nelson rode for some of the leading stables in the country including Henry and Jane Lunger's Christiana Stables, Isabel Dodge Sloane's Brookmeade Stable, as well as the renowned Calumet Farm. On February 28, 1949, at Hialeah Park Race Track in Hialeah, Florida, he rode Calumet's future U.S. Racing Hall of Fame colt Coaltown to a win that equalled the world record of 1:47 3/5 for a mile-and-an-eighth on dirt.
01American Classic Races
Eldon Nelson had two mounts in the Belmont Stakes with his best result in 1957 when he rode Inside Tract to a second-place finish behind Gallant Man. On May 29, 1972, the forty-four-year-old Nelson earned the most important win of his career. In his fourth mount in the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series, on a sloppy Pimlico Race Course he rode the William S. Farish III colt Bee Bee Bee to victory.
Eldon Nelson retired in 1973. He and his wife returned to live on their farm near Cedar Vale, Kansas.
In 2009, Nelson was inducted into the Oklahoma Horse Racing Hall of Fame.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Eldon Nelson”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Eldon Nelson 1959 Diana stakes (cropped).jpg by Transferred to the Photographs from the Margaret Truman Daniel and E. Clifton Daniel Papers. This item was produced or created on August 17, 1958. The creator compiled or maintained the parent series, Photographs Relating to the Administration, Family, and Personal Life of Harry S. Truman, between 1957-2023., Public domain
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