Sweet Kiss of death as winning jockey dies during race

My pals are all big racing fans. One of our regular pub chats on the subject last week took a strange turn. It was claimed that, in the 1920s, a dead jockey won a horse race. Can my friend’s tale be true? – S.

There was a sense of shock inside New York’s Belmont Park when unfancied 20-1 shot Sweet Kiss crossed the finish line first in a steeplechase held on June 4 1923.

But racegoers’ surprise turned to horror as a genuine sporting tragedy unfolded.

Seconds after crossing the finish line, jockey Frank Hayes slumped off his jumper’s back and fell to the track.

It emerged Hayes had suffered a heart attack after his horse took the lead, dying instantly. However, his body somehow remained in the saddle, and Sweet Kiss managed to keep going to win by a head.

A trainer and stableman, Hayes, 35, had never even won a race before.

He had managed to persuade his boss that the horse, owned by Miss AM Frayling, was ready to enter the competitive fray.

There was speculation later that Hayes’ heart had given out due to the intense training regime he put himself through to bring down his weight.

Belmont’s Jockey Club declared Sweet Kiss’s win official and Hayes was buried three days later, dressed in his colourful racing silks.

He remains unique in the history books as the only competitor to win a sporting event after dying.