Rodney Jenkins
| Rodney Jenkins | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Trainer, former show jumper |
| Born |
July 3, 1944 Middleburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Career wins | 847+ (ongoing) |
| Major racing wins | |
|
Leonard Richards Stakes (2002) General George Handicap (2014) Maryland Million Turf (2015, 2016) |
|
| Significant horses | |
| Bandbox, Running Tide, Phlash Phelps | |
Rodney Jenkins is an American former equestrian member, who has been inducted into the show jumping Hall of Fame and is now a race horse trainer.
He rode competitively from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, and after retiring from the show ring became a Thoroughbred racehorse trainer, based out of Laurel Park.
Jenkins was given the nickname "The Red Rider" because of his red hair.
Jenkins graduated from high school in 1961 and was hired to ride in horse shows up and down the East Coast, including Florida winter circuit when it was just beginning.
After three years, Jenkins returned to his family’s farm in Orange, Virginia, working in the family business, Hill Top Stables (HTS), which trained foxhunters and show horses.
From the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Jenkins competed in both the show hunter and show jumper divisions.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jenkins dominated the top horse shows. In 1967, he won four out of the six hunter-jumper champions at The Garden to set a record. In the American Horse shows Association (AHSA) “Horse of the Year” awards that year, Jenkins rode winners in five of the six divisions in which he competed. At the venerable Sedgefield Horse Show in 1968, Jenkins won 13 classes in a single day. On the Detroit Circuit in 1968 (Detroit & Motor City) Jenkins won 90 of the 92 classes in which he competed.
During the 1971 Pennsylvania National Horse Show, Jenkins rode the champion in the First Year Green Hunter Division, the Second Year Green Hunter Division, the Green Conformation Hunter Division, the Working Hunter Division, was Reserve Champion in the Open Jumper Division and was leading Open Jumper rider. Moreover, at a typical horse show it was not unusual for Jenkins to ride 40-50 horses and jump thousands of fences. At the Devon Horse Show in 1968, he jumped approximately 3200 fences.
The horse he is most famous for riding was the ex-race horse Idle Dice (“Ike” or “Oakie”). Of Jenkins’s over 70 grand prix wins, 30 were won on Ike. They are the only combination to win the prestigious President's Cup twice and they won it in consecutive years (1970-1971). They also won the American Gold Cup three years in a row (1973-1975). Jenkins sold the first $1 million grand prix jumper, The Natural, who won the 1985 American Gold Cup with Jenkins and The World Cup in 1987 with Katherine Burdsall.
Jenkins' first big international win was The Presidents Cup in 1970. He confronted future World Champion, West German Hartwig Steenken and his great mare Simona in the jump-off. Steenken went first and delivered what many spectators thought was an unbeatable clear round. Jenkins went last with Idle Dice and beat Simona’s time by an incredible five seconds!
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