LaVerne Sewell
American jockey
LaVerne Sewell (July 14, 1888 – November 9, 1906) was an up-and-coming American thoroughbred racing jockey who was competing in only his second year of racing when he died at age eighteen as a result of a racing accident at New York's Aqueduct Racetrack.
In their reporting on LaVerne Sewell's death, the widely respected Daily Racing Form (DRF) called him "one of the best race riders on the American turf."
Racing career
1905
LaVerne Sewell began his riding career in early 1905 and owner/trainer Charles E. Rowe had quickly recognized Sewell's potential and would sign him to a contract. In February, when Rowe registered some of his new two-year-olds, he named a colt by Cesarion, out of the mare Ora Bailey, "Sewell." Jockey Sewell soon justified trainer Rowe's confidence in him, displaying a high level of riding acumen during the spring race meet at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Rowe then brought Sewell to race in Chicago and in October, he was competing in New York where his wins included the important First Special Stakes at Gravesend Race Track The DRF wrote that his riding at the winter meets in New Orleans was "especially noticeable and brilliant." Sewell ended his first year in racing with 129 wins, ranking him sixth in the United States.
1906
In the fall of 1906 LaVerne Sewell agreed to a new riding contract that guaranteed him an annual salary of $20,000 for giving first call on his riding service to stable owner John W. Gates. Based on inflation, that would equal just over $600,000 in 2021. As well, Sewell would, and did, ride for other owners whenever not needed by the Gates stable and the Pittsburgh Press estimated he could earn an additional $40,000 (today $1,200,000) that year.
Returning to New York to compete against the best jockeys in the country, LaVerne Sewell would win a number of stakes events including the Fashion Stakes for racing's preeminent trainer James G. Rowe Sr. at Belmont Park riding Court Dress who would go on to be recognized as that year's American Champion Two-Year-Old Filly. On his eighteenth birthday, Sewell won the important Brighton Handicap aboard Ram's Horn.
“LaVerne Sewell” enters the record as american jockey. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what LaVerne, Sewell and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q108104103. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1906, 1905 and 2021.
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This entry incorporates text from “LaVerne Sewell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.