Career
A native of Brooklyn, New York, Joe Notter rode prominently in the first decades of the 20th century. Statistics from his racing career as a jockey are limited but it is known that he was working as a stable boy at age ten and was riding and winning at age thirteen. He developed a reputation as a good handler of young horses and rode winners in several important stakes races for two-year-old horses including three wins in the important Hopeful Stakes.
During his career, Joe Notter rode United States. Racing Hall of Fame inductees Maskette and Colin for owner James R. Keene plus Regret and Whisk Broom II for Harry Payne Whitney.
Aboard Colin in the 1908 Belmont Stakes, Notter misjudged the finish line and eased the horse up. In the 1957 Kentucky Derby, jockey Bill Shoemaker would make the same mistake with Gallant Manitoba and lose the race.
Notter competed in the Preakness Stakes only once, finishing twelfth in the 1910 edition Notter battled weight problems and after 1908 limited himself to dieting enough to be able to ride in selected stakes races.
Joe Notter was inducted in the United States" Racing Hall of Fame in 1963.