There was a horse race on 4th june 1923, at Belmont Park racetrack in Elmont, New York.
Frank Hayes who never won a race before, participated in the race as jockey. The twenty two year old guy was not a jockey by profession but a horse trainer and stableman.
His horse Sweet Kiss was owned by Miss A.M. Frayling. During the race, Haye suffered a fatal heart attack and died. Sweet Kiss, the horse finished the race while Haye’s body remained on his saddle. This was the first time he won any race. Ironically it was his last time too.
Haye’s death wasn’t discovered even after the winning of the race but It was when Miss Frayling and others went to congratulate him, they found out the star of the race was not alive anymore.
This race made him not only the winner for the first time in life, but the first and the only person who won a race after death.
When the body was sent for the post mortem, the officials declared that he died because of his extreme efforts to meet weight requirements during the race. Some newspaper even claimed that he died because of over excitement. Even today the cause of heart attack remains unclear.
Sadly, Haye was not alive to celebrate his own and first victory but his death landed his name in Guinness World Records being the ‘only jockey to ride to victory after his own death’.
After a week of his death, he was buried in the same riding silks he wore during his first win.
And the horse, Sweet Kiss came to be known as “Sweet Kiss Of Death” and never raced again for the rest of her life after that race.
