The Ballad of Frank Hayes

Frank Hayes had always loved horses. From a young age, he dreamed of becoming a jockey. At 20, he worked as a stable hand but always longed for the thrill of race day. Then Frank came across a horse that he immediately felt a connection with - an old mare named Sweet Kiss that had never won a race. It seemed like everyone had given up on her…but not Frank.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's the fourth of June nineteen twenty three at New
York's Belmont Park Racecourse. Horses and their jockeys are galloping
around the track and leaping over fences, hedges and ditches.
They're all competing in the grueling steeplechase. In the race

(00:27):
is Sweet Kiss, a horse no one wanted to ride.
Her odds of winning were just twenty to one. But
on the final stretch, Sweet Kiss is charging towards the finish.
Here she is within reach of victory. But something's wrong.
Her jockey, Frank Hayes, is losing his grip on the reins.

(00:49):
He's holding on with one hand and looks like he's
about to fall off just short of the finish line.
Do Sweet Kiss get the win? What happened to the jockey? Hey?
I'm Tony Armstrong and this is the pool room where
we celebrate the winners, losers and the weird stuff between.

(01:32):
Frank Hayes had always loved horses. From a young age,
he dreamed of becoming a jockey. It isn't until he's twenty, though,
that Frank started working as a stable hand. He'd look
after the horses, feeding them and preparing them for races.
Frank loved the work, but longed for something more. He
wanted to experience the thrill of race day and the

(01:53):
special bond between horse and jockey. After a couple of
years in the job, Frank came across a horse that
he immediately fell to connection with. Her name was Sweet Kiss,
a seven year old man that had never won a race.
It seemed like everyone had given up on Sweet Kiss,
but not Frank. Frank worked closely with sweet Kiss for

(02:19):
a few months. He trained her, learned about her personality,
her strengths, and her weaknesses. Frank could see potential, but
not everyone was convinced. Frank put in hours of training
with Sweet Kiss, but despite all of his hard work,
his boss thought she was a lost cause. No jock

(02:42):
he wanted to ride her, and that's when Frank decided
to make his case. He pleaded for permission to enter
Sweet Kiss into the next race with himself as jockey.
He took some convincing, but finally Frank's boss gave in.
There was still one problem though, Frank was too heavy

(03:04):
to qualify for the race. There were two weeks until
race day, but before Frank Hays could enter, he was
in a race of his own against the clock. He
weighed sixty four kilograms. He had to lose at least
five kilos before he was allowed to ride his plan.
Running right up until the very morning of the race,

(03:28):
he was making the most of every moment. He'd run
for several hours at a stretch, the grueling weight loss
regimen worked, Frank was down to fifty eight kilos he
was allowed to compete. He arrived at the track completely
exhausted but ready to race. Frank made his way to

(03:50):
the stables to prepare Sweet Kiss for her big moment.
As the horse was lined up for this stuf of
the race, Frank was nervous but excited. He had something
to prove. He was riding a complete outsider, a horse
that trainers, jockeys, and bookmakers had all ruled out. But

(04:12):
Frank had come to know Sweet Kiss better than anyone,
and he believed she was ready to prove the doubters
wrong too. The starting gate opened and the race was underway.
It was a slow start for Sweet Kiss, but by
no means was she running last. She'd taken up a

(04:35):
solid position in the middle of the pack and was
keeping pace. Then Sweet Kiss made her move edging closer
and closer to the front. It came down to the
home straight. Just a few hundred meters remained, but Sweet
Kiss was well in front now and poised to win

(04:59):
the underne across the finish line in first place. Sweet
Kiss had her first victory, and remarkably, Frank Hayes had
when his first ever race as a jockey. But Frank
wasn't celebrating. As Sweet Kiss slowed down to a trot,
he fell off the horse, his body completely limp. Something

(05:21):
was very wrong. Race officials rushed to check on Frank.
He wasn't getting up. People were confused. Had he passed
out during the race. No, it turned out that Frank
Hayes was dead. A doctor was called. He assessed the

(05:48):
situation and determined Frank had died at some point in
the middle of the race. What from Well, it turns
out that Frank had a heart attack. He'd put his
body through so much training to lose weight that his
heart couldn't take it. The circumstances were tragic. Frank Hayes

(06:13):
had achieved his horse racing dream, but it cost him
his life. As for Sweet Kiss, well, she'd finally won
a race, but it was also her last event. Turns
out jockeys are a superstitious lot. No one would ride her,
and she was nicknamed the sweet Kiss of Death. Here's

(06:38):
to you, Frank. I hope you're riding horses wherever you
are now. I'm Tony Armstrong and this has been an

(07:02):
iHeart production. Catch you in the next one.