Famed Jockey Neves Dies

Ralph Neves, a Hall of Fame jockey who made headlines in 1936 when he walked out of a mortuary after being declared dead in a track accident, died Friday at age 78.

Neves, dubbed “the Portuguese Pepperpot,” won 3,771 races, including 173 stakes, before retiring in 1964. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in 1960.

Neves was a teenager riding at Bay Meadows in San Mateo, Calif., when a horse threw him into a wooden rail on May 8, 1936.

Neves was trampled by other horses and pronounced dead by the track doctor. He was taken to a hospital and then the mortuary.