LOS ANGELES — Jerry Lambert, a leading jockey on the Southern California circuit in the 1960s and ’70s who rode Native Diver to three consecutive Hollywood Gold Cup victories, was found dead on Monday at Magali Farms in Santa Ynez, Calif., where he worked. He was 74.
His daughter Lacey confirmed the death.
Lambert was the regular rider of the Hall of Fame gelding Native Diver, and together they won Gold Cups in 1965, ’66 and ’67. He won 2,535 races and retired with 42 stakes wins at Santa Anita, 54 at Hollywood Park and 30 at Del Mar. Lambert was Santa Anita’s leading rider in 1967-68 and won another title at the track’s fall meet in 1972. He was Del Mar’s leading rider in 1967.
He was born in Clyde, Kan., on Dec. 27, 1940.
“Anytime he was in a race, you had to deal with him because he didn’t make mistakes,” Donald Pierce, a Hall of Fame jockey, said. “He was very quiet, very low-key, and he’d come and beat you when you’d least expect it.”
Lambert beat the Hall of Famer Bill Shoemaker in a match race in 1972 at Hollywood Park. Typecast, ridden by Shoemaker, was favored, but Lambert guided Convenience to victory in the $250,000 winner-take-all race in front of 53,575.
“Not too many people outrode Shoemaker,” said the trainer Tom Proctor, whose father, Willard, trained Convenience. “But Jerry had him in his hip pocket that day.”
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