Career
Born in Lower Gully, Kelligrews, Conception Bay, Newfoundland, while still a small boy Nick Wall"s family moved to Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. A coal mining town, the diminutive Wall work in the mines as a pony rider. Riding principally in the United States, over the course of his career, Nick Wall had mounts in each of the American Classic Races with his best result in the Kentucky Derby coming in 1936 when he rode Coldstream to a fourth-place finish.
In 1938, Wall had his best year when he was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings.
Nick Wall continued to race successfully but a serious injury sustained in a 1945 race diminished his riding skills. At the time of his retirement in 1957 he had made 11,164 starts, earning 1,419 firsts, 1,305 seconds, plus 1,352 third-place finishes.
In 1979, Nick Wall was Inducted in Canada"s Sports Hall of Fame and the Newfoundland and Labrador Sports Hall of Fame. He died in Bellerose, New York in 1983 at age seventy-six.