James "Tod" Sloan

Born in 1874 in Bunker Hill, James “Tod” Sloan grew up in Kokomo. Sloan went on to enjoy great success in horse racing with his career taking him to tracks across the United States and Europe.

Sloan was posthumously inducted into the National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame as a member of its charter class in 1955.

Sloan’s start in horse racing came in 1886 at Latonia Race Track in Covington, Ky. At the age of 15, he registered his first win at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans. He went to California in 1893, and then moved to the East Coast to race in New York a few years later. It was in New York that he found his greatest success. There he made a name for himself in racing circles around the nation by winning nearly 30 percent of his races in 1896, 37 percent in 1897 and a staggering 46 percent in 1898.

Sloan enjoyed success in England as well. He won several high-profile races, including the 1899 1,000 Guineas and the 1900 Ascot Gold Cup. Along the way, he helped popularize the forward seat style of racing, which the British called the “monkey crouch.”

Success on the racetrack, combined with a flamboyant lifestyle, made Sloan one of the first international celebrities of the sport. His reputation was such that he was the “Yankee Doodle” of George M. Cohan’s Broadway musical “Little Johnny Jones.”

Sloan died in 1933 at age 59.