Career
Pickens began his career working as an exercise rider in 1906. His wins came aboard distiller Joseph Seagram"s colt Mandarin in the 1916 Breeders" Stakes and in Canada"s most prestigious race, the King"s Plate. In winters he road at Oriental Park Racetrack in Havana, Cuba where in 1924 he was one of the tracks top jockeys.
He is buried in the Maysville Cemetery.
Following its formation in 1955, Pickens was inducted in the National Jockey"s Hall of Fame at Pimlico Race Course. In 2008, Raymond H. Davis of Rockville, Maryland, a second cousin of Arthur Pickens published his biography titled Remembering Arthur Pickens.