Randy Colton, record-setting jockey at Playfair Race Course, dies at 61

Randy Colton, once a record-setting jockey and Inland Northwest Professional Athlete of the Year, was remembered Saturday as a happy guy who brought far more to life than his ability to guide thoroughbred horses.

Colton, 61, died in his sleep of a heart attack on Sept. 3 in Phoenix, his home in recent years. Retired jockeys, trainers and horse owners were among the more than 100 people who attended his memorial service at St. George Catholic Church of Post Falls.

A former Idaho state wrestling champion at Rathdrum’s Lakeland High School, Colton began riding on the Montana fair circuit in 1971 and burst in prominence eight years later by riding 109 winners at Spokane’s former Playfair Race Course. As a result, he was named Pro Athlete of the Year at that winter’s Sports Award Banquet.

Although he suffered a shattered leg at Playfair the next year, Colton finished third in the 1981 standings and second with 113 winners as Todd Stephens broke Colton’s record with 131 in 1983.

Saturday, Colton’s oldest sibling, Rick, called him “a wonderful brother, a professional athlete, an entrepreneur and a family man.”

Although Randy Colton was an intense competitor, many people remembered how much he loved to laugh.

“I guess my strength is my consistency,” Colton told Spokesman-Review columnist Dave Boling in 1987. “I don’t quit. I never quit.”

In addition to almost 20 years as a rider, Colton owned his own businesses, volunteered for hospitals serving terminally ill children and coached soccer and baseball.

Colton is survived by his mother, Margaret, as well as two brothers and five sisters. His younger brother, Robert, became a standout jockey in Pennsylvania.

Jim Price, correspondent