Peter Cook is championship winning jockey from Canberra, Australia whose career is distinguished in the annals of horse racing. His most dramatic contribution to racing, however, came from an event that took place off the track. After suffering a heart attack while trying to lose weight in order to qualify for a race, he brought --- and won --- a lawsuit against a racing club for contributing to his heart attack.
Early Life
Peter's Cook's father is Bill Cook, himself a champion jockey in Australia. Bill Cook was known as "last race Cookie" after repeatedly winning the final run in a series of televised races. Cook followed the trail blazed by his father by also winning the Melbourne Cup two times.
Racing Style
Cook won more than 1,000 races during his career, from high-stakes contests to championship races in France and Australia. It was his unusual style that captured fans' attention. To drive a horse onward Cook would use his hands and the heels of his feet rather than taking the whip in hand. The unorthodox style earned the praise of several well-respected horse trainers, such as Tommy "TJ" Smith, Bart Cummings and Geoff Murphy, according to Cook's 2011 autobiography, "Jockeying To The Top: The Story Of Horse Racing Legend Peter Cook."
Jockey's Rights
Cook was known for fighting to improve the treatment of jockeys by the racing clubs in Australia who employed and provided facilities for them. He also, according to his autobiography, would not tolerate being treated as anything less than a professional, highly trained athlete by racing officials, who commonly treated jockeys as "second class citizens."
Heart Attack
In 1990 Cook suffered a heart attack while taking a sauna at the Black Opal club. He was in the sauna purposely dehydrating himself to make the weight for a race, a common practice for jockeys. Cook sued the ACT Riding Club, for whom he rode, because there was no warning posted that losing weight in a sauna increased the likelihood of a heart attack. He also said the ACT Club knew the practice was common yet encouraged it despite the known risks to jockeys of heart attacks. In 2001, Justice Ken Crispin sided with Cook and awarded him $1.3 million in damages. "He had been a most successful professional sportsman;" Crispin said of Cook in his ruling, "a champion in his field."
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