breeder horse trainer stable owner
Jacobs was born on April 8, 1904, in New York City, the son of a poor immigrant tailor and his wife. Shortly after Jacobs' birth, the family moved to the East New York section of Brooklyn. There, at the age of twelve, he began to race pigeons. He showed a remarkable ability to identify and remember racers.
Jacobs graduated from public school at thirteen and worked briefly as a pipe fitter.
Through the brother of his boss, Charlie Ferraro, Jacobs received an introduction to the world of horse racing. While still in his teens, he used money saved from wagers on pigeon races to buy his first horse, and on December 29, 1926, he saddled his first winner at Pompano, Florida, a horse named Reveillon. Two years later he formed a partnership with Isidor ("Beebee") Bieber, who had made a fortune gambling. The union, which lasted for some thirty years, grew until the Bieber-Jacobs Stable owned more than 200 horses at locations throughout the country. Jacobs became recognized for his ability to choose little-known, ailing, or otherwise undesirable horses and fashion them into winners. Especially noted for his "voodoo veterinarian" abilities, he used a wide variety of unorthodox remedies to treat injured horses. Jacobs was also renowned for his uncanny ability to take losing horses and make winners of them. Unlike many of the great racehorse trainers, Jacobs owned and bred his own horses. He believed that horses that competed regularly were less likely to become injured than were horses that trained for extended periods and raced only occasionally. Accordingly, he raced his horses often. He also liked to buy cheap horses and "run them like a fleet of taxicabs. " The tactics succeeded, and Jacobs became the winningest trainer in American history. During his forty-three years as an active trainer, he saddled a total of 3, 569 winners. His most important horse was Stymie, a puny, awkward-looking animal that he bought for $1, 500 and that won stakes totaling $918, 485. In 1936, Jacobs' best year, his trainees won 177 of the 632 races entered. In addition to his special training and racing methods, Jacobs was considered in a class by himself when it came to equine psychology. He could rehabilitate losers, calm notoriously skittish animals, and invariably get the best out of horses. By the time illness forced Jacobs into retirement in 1966, he had become the darling of the $2 bettors. He successfully challenged millionaire scions of the turf at their own game and, in so doing, made a fortune. He always ran his horses in salmon pink and emerald green silks, and when his horses were on a winning streak, he would wear the same suit for weeks on end. The "reduction" of the Bieber-Jacobs Stable, when the partners sold their holdings in five separate offerings, was what many considered the ultimate testament to his abilities as a trainer. The high prices paid indicated that the public at large recognized that Jacobs was perhaps the finest judge of horseflesh of his day. Although Jacobs never won America's biggest race, the Kentucky Derby, horses he trained collected purses totaling $15, 340, 354, according to calculations prepared at the time of his retirement. He died in Miami, Florida, on February 13, 1970.
In 1933, despite the Great Depression, Jacobs married Ethel Dushock, the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer; they had three children.
