George M. Odom

Who was George M. Odom?

George Martin Odom was an American National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame jockey and trainer in Thoroughbred horse racing. He is only one of two people to ever have won the Belmont Stakes as both a jockey and a trainer.

A native of Columbus, Georgia, at age fourteen George Odom galloped horses for future Hall of Fame trainer, William P. Burch. He began riding professionally at age fifteen and in 1899 at age sixteen, won his first race. He quickly made such an impression that an April 10, 1899 article in the Chicago Daily Tribune referred to him as another Tod Sloan. In June 1899, the eighty-seven-pound Odom, who was an early advocate of the short-stirrup riding manner used today, signed a contract to ride for W. C. Whitney for a salary of $10,000 a year with additional compensation on a sliding scale for winning and finishing in the money.

He rode at tracks in New York, New Orleans and the Benning Race Track in Washington, D.C.. Among his major wins as a jockey, Odom rode Banastar to victory in the 1901 Metropolitan Handicap and won the Woodlawn Vase trophy on three occasions. The best known of his mounts was future Hall of Fame inductee, Broomstick.