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Corbett reaches milestone with 1,000 wins at Prairie Meadows Wilkes County jockey Glenn Corbett has reached a milestone that few other jockeys have attained. Corbett was recognized by Prairie Meadows racetrack in Iowa as the first person with 1,000 wins at the track, the Des Moines Register reported last week. Prairie Meadows honored Corbett with a banner and the jockeys flooded the winner's circle to congratulate the track's career riding leader, the paper said. Corbett, son of Rayle's Rev. Dan and Beverly Corbett, told the paper, "It's an honor to be able to do it. It took a lot of hard work from a lot of people - the grooms, trainers, owners, exercise riders. It wasn't just me." But how does a Georgia rodeo rider, and the son of a Baptist preacher, wind up in Iowa riding racehorses? When Corbett was in high school, he reached the high school national finals in rodeo twice. He competed in bull riding, saddle broncos, and bareback riding. But riding rodeo was very abusive to the body, Corbett said, and he figured out pretty soon on that that wasn't going to be his main career. He had to start at the bottom of the horseracing world, walking horses and cleaning stalls. But at 5'1" and 110 pounds, his goal was to be a jockey. Starting in Atlantic City, he went to the Midwest to ride at Remington Park in Oklahoma and then Ak-Sar- Ben in Omaha. Travelling to Iowa, he rode in Prairie Meadows' first season, winning 54 races. His racing year consists of two seasons. From April to September he is at Prairie Meadows, then from October to April, he rides at Turf Paradise in Arizona. He has often been the leading rider at both tracks. The Des Moines Register says he ranks 20th nationally in wins with 133 this year, and his 27 percent winning rate is the third best among the nation's top 100 riders. He has 2,584 career victories, with his mounts earning more than $27 million.
His career highlight came in 2002, when he rode Lusty Latin in the Kentucky Derby, finishing 16th.
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