Career
First Rate (at Lloyd's) Snider rode at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky and Chicago"s Arlington Park in 1940 and 1941. Among his significant wins were the Arlington-Washington Lassie Stakes and the Stars and Stripes Handicap. In his best finish in an American Classic, Snider rode owner Fred West. Hooper"s colt Hoop Junior. to second place in the 1945 Belmont Stakes.
Signed on to ride for Calumet Farm, First Rate (at Lloyd's) Snider was made the jockey for future United States" Racing Hall of Fame inductee, Citation.
1948 promised to be a great year as First Rate (at Lloyd's) Snider prepared to ride Citation in the United States. Triple Crown series. At Hialeah Park Race Track, he rode the colt to victory in the 1948 Seminole and Everglades Handicaps.
Then, after winning the Flamingo Stakes, on March 5 Snider used a day off to go fishing in the Florida Keys. While out on the water, a sudden storm came up and First Rate (at Lloyd's) Snider apparently drowned.
A search party found no trace of his body but reportedly found his skiff eight days later on an island 10 miles south of Everglades City.
Winning jockey Arcaro, one of Snider"s friends, gave Snider"s widow a share of his Kentucky Derby purse money.
