Sam Krasner’s career made a series of whistle stops along the gorse racing byways before he arrived in Vancouver in 1975. The West Coast would become a permanent home for the young man who was raised in the Deep South.

Twenty-seven years later he had recorded more victories, 2,427, at Hastings cum Exhibition Park than any other jockey. When he had to sit out the 1998 season because of a rotator cuff injury, arch rival (a fellow Hall of Fame member) Chris Loseth passed him but the two are far ahead of their nearest rivals, Brian Johnson and Mark Walker. Krasner expects to be back next season and the race to determine the track’s all time leading winner will be a sub plot in the jockey standings for the years to come.

Krasner was born in Atlanta, Georgia in 1950, where he was on the high school’s gymnastic team. There was no racing in the state of Georgia, but after one year in college he decided the racetrack offered a man his size a good chance to make a living. He drove to California and got a job breaking horses in Chino for Rex Ellsworth, the man who bred and owned 1963 Kentucky Derby winner Swaps.

When he tired of that tough work he moved onto Bay Meadows where he worked for trainer Buster Millerick and really got going when he hooked up with Northern California trainer Lawrence Kidd who made a career of training apprentice riders. “I was the 41st apprentice he had started,” recalls Krasner.

He broke his maiden at the fair meet at Stockton, California, and then embarked on a nomadic life. He had stops in Seattle, Tampa Bay Downs, Cleveland, and was introduced to bullring riding at Sportman’s Park in Chicago. In the winter of 1975 he was Portland Meadows, where he has a tough time getting mounts despite a decent winning percentage. He was growing discouraged. Then a phone call came from Vancouver.

Doug Winship, the king of jockeys’ agents, saw him ride in Portland and invited hime to Vancouver. Doug partnered him with a friend, fellow agent Roddy Morrison. The first year he rode 62 winners, good enough for seventh in the standings. He improved his output each year and became the leading rider in 1978 with 104 winners. Although his career has had blips it became more focused in 1982 when he married trainer Cindy Olson.

He is a heady, aggressive competitor with a keen sense of pace and he is at best when the long green is on the line. “As you get older you want to maximize your efforts,” he says. “You start thinking of winner rather than volume.”

He has been so successful at this that the last two seasons he has been the second leading percentage rider in North America behind Russell Baze.

“Vancouver is a hard place for a rider to break in,” says Krasner. “A lot of riders have come and gone without making an impression. I was lucky enough to have good agents and people gave me a chance. Trainer Fred Dyson was very good to me. Once I became established, Vancouver was very loyal to me. Vancouver is a very loyal place.”

Krasner has been loyal to the people who have helped him most. He’s had three agents over his 27 seasons – Morrison, Johnny Lawrence and Marty Kelly.