From one sport to another
Cauthen participates in LPGA Legends pro-am event
Steve Cauthen rode into the history books atop Affirmed in 1978, becoming the youngest jockey to win the Triple Crown.
Today, the Verona resident and Owen Electric Cooperative consumer-member is still using his fame for good.
Cauthen is a regular at the Woodford Legends Invitational in Versailles—planned this year for August 8-9. The invitational is a team event on the LPGA Legends Tour. Its various events feature LPGA legends, aspiring amateurs and other notable figures in the sports world.
In 1977, Cauthen was the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year. Muhammad Ali was second in the voting, and New York Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson was third.
Thirty-five years later at a sports card signing event, Cauthen ran into Jackson and introduced himself. Jackson invited over a professional basketball player and said, “This is Steve Cauthen. I had two chances to win Sportsman of the Year in 1973 and 1977. In 1973, a stinking horse named Secretariat beat me, and in 1977 this little punk beat me.”
Cauthen chuckles about the reception he received from Jackson, and has nothing but praise for the LPGA Legends he has teed up with at The Woodford Club.
“You get to play with the best, and I got to play with Laura Davies,” says Cauthen of his playing partner in 2025. “They are not only great players, but they are great people. To be around them is exciting.
“Horse people love golf, and love competition, and just meeting good people like you see here,” he says. “I think we love to see a real champion dig deep and pull off a win.”
Cauthen retired from riding in 1992 and took lessons from PGA Professional Bob Hauer in the Cincinnati area. He spent 25 years as a member of the Triple Crown Golf Club in Union, Kentucky.
“I learned a lot of how to ride watching other people,” says Cauthen, “and did the same thing with golf. When I saw something that could help me, I tried to copy it.
“I still love the game, and you always have fun, and there are other jockeys that are going to be part of this. A bunch of us love to play golf. When you retire from riding, you still want to compete at something.”
BOB DENNEY is PGA of America Historian Emeritus.
