Career
Known as "Jimmy", and nicknamed "Cowboy," he competed in rodeo bull riding, worked as a stable groom, and then went on to became a successful jockey in Quarter Horse racing before turning to Thoroughbred flat racing. In 1947 Jimmy Nichols was the leading apprentice jockey at Hollywood Park Racetrack and the following year, the leading jockey at Delegate March Racetrack. He went on to ride for major racing stable owners such as Christopher Chenery, George A. Pope, Junior., the Phipps family"s Wheatley Stable, Fred West. Hooper and John West. Galbreath.
During his career, Nichols rode in seven United States. Triple Crown races, his best finish a third aboard Gentleman James in the 1967 Belmont Stakes.
After thirty-two years, Jimmy Nichols retired from riding in 1979 and went to work as a steward at various racetracks including Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Waterford Park near Chester, West Virginia and finally at Trinity Meadows Race Track in Willow Park, Texas. In 1993, Jimmy Nichols was inducted into the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame.
He suffered from kidney failure in 1995 and spent his last years working in the jockeys" room at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas. Even after his retirement from riding, Jimmy Nichols was sought out by owners in the horse racing industry for his knowledge of Thoroughbreds.
The best known example of this occurred in 1987 with Louie Roussel, an owner/trainer who also owned Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans.
Roussel hired Nichols to check out approximately twenty two-year-old Thoroughbreds coming up for auction and to make buying recommendations. Throughout "s campaign, Jimmy Nichols maintained an important role. He turned down a job offer from Ellis Park Race Course to remain as the exercise rider of in exchange for a bonus of one lifetime breeding right to the valuable colt.