Del Mar lost one of its legendary jockeys last month when Donald Pierce passed away at the age of 89. The winner of 3,546 races during his 31-year career that started in the late 50s and carried through the 60s and 70s, the Hall of Fame jockey always referred to Del Mar as his favorite track to ride.

Pierce was part of the highly contentious Southern California riding colony that included such luminaries as Bill Shoemaker, Johnny Longden and Eddie Arcaro. Later he went up against the likes of Chris McCarron, Laffit Pincay, Jr., and Eddie Delahoussaye. 

Pierce won a total of 54 stakes races at Del Mar. Included on that list were four victories in the Del Mar Debutante, and three wins each in the Del Mar Derby and the Del Mar Oaks. He won virtually every major stakes race at Del Mar, from the San Diego Handicap to the Del Mar Futurity. Yet he only managed one riding title, in 1966, when he returned after a six-year absence and won 47 races. 

Despite their rivalry on the track, Pierce and Shoemaker were very close friends during their riding careers and long after they retired from racing. The two often hung out together up in Arcadia and when they were riding at Del Mar. Sadly, Shoemaker was on his way to meet up with Pierce the night he crashed his car, an accident that landed Shoemaker in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

One of Pierce’s favorite stories to tell about Shoemaker involved the 1962 Santa Anita Handicap. Pierce, Shoemaker and a rider named Alex Maese were coupled together in a three-way entry. Often times jockeys in coupled entries would agree before the race to share the purse money regardless of the finish but this time Pierce was on a huge longshot so Shoemaker and Maese left him out of the arrangement. 

Low and behold, Pierce wins the race and as they’re galloping out after crossing the finish line, Shoemaker rolls up alongside him and yells, “You’re in, Don, you’re in.”

Pierce lived in Encinitas after his riding days and was a regular at Del Mar. He was a clocker for several years at the seaside oval. You can see Pierce’s Hall of Fame plaque and his George Woolf Trophy on the wall just inside the Horsemen’s Lounge on the third floor of Del Mar’s Stretch Run.

When his health began to fail him about a year ago, Pierce moved to Denton, Texas to be near family. He’s survived by his brother, Larry; daughter, Connie Markum; two sons, Edward and Donald Jr.; five grandchildren and one great-grandchild.