José A. Santos

In 2011 Jose Santos' biography, Above It All: The Turbulent Life of Jose Santos, was authored by award-winning author Bill Heller.

The $48 million libel suit against The Miami Herald was settled in 2008. Santos's Palm Beach attorney, litigator Bruce S. Rogow, told reporters his client was "pleased" with the confidential terms.

On February 1, 2007, Santos, then 45 years old, was involved in a three-horse racing accident at Aqueduct Racetrack in New York. He suffered five broken vertebrae, a broken sternum, and several broken ribs.

Santos initially planned to return to riding by late 2007. However, he did not fully recover from his spinal injuries. Advised by his doctors that it would be far too dangerous for him to return to riding and that he would likely end up paralyzed should he have another accident, Santos, along with his current wife, Rita, and the support of his children, decided to retire.

José Santos was also one of the first of five top jockeys (the others were Jerry Bailey, John Velazquez, Gary Stevens, and Shane Sellers) to wear advertising patches in the Kentucky Derby, starting in 2004. They sued, with an argument grounded in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to be allowed to wear such patches during the race. The ruling was issued on April 21, 2004, by U.S. District Judge John Heyburn in Louisville.

In 2004, José Santos and Sackatoga Stable, owners of thoroughbred Funny Cide, filed a $48 million libel suit against The Miami Herald because of a story by freelance writer Frank Carlson and a photograph that appeared in its issue for May 10, 2003, seven days after Santos won the Kentucky Derby.

In 1999, Santos won the coveted George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award (since 1950, presented annually to the thoroughbred horseracing jockey in North America who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct both on and off the racetrack); the Award has long been considered a very high honor, for the winning jockey is selected by his peers. Santos also won the 2003 ESPY Awards as the foremost jockey in the United States. He has long been a favorite of aficionados of the sport and is one of the best-liked and most respected jockeys in it.

Santos and his first wife, Maria, who was from Roslyn Heights, were divorced in 1994; they had two children during the marriage. Daughter Sophia Santos was graduated from Roslyn High School in 2005, then briefly attended the Fashion Institute of Technology. Son Jose Ricardo Santos was a graduated from the same high school in 2007 and now serves in the United States Marine Corps.

Jose Santos first raced horses at the Club Hípico de Concepción in his native Chile, following in the footsteps of his father and three of his seven brothers, and in Colombia before moving to the United States in 1984. There he was the top money-winning jockey four years in a row, from 1986 through 1989, winning the 1988 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey in the United States; Santos was at the top of the sport during those years. He won seven Breeders' Cup races and won the 1999 Belmont Stakes aboard Lemon Drop Kid. He won the 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes with Funny Cide but missed winning the Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing after finishing third in the Belmont Stakes. More recently, Santos has said that Funny Cide was not the greatest horse he ever rode but certainly was his personal favorite.

José Adeón Santos León (born April 26, 1961, in Concepción, Chile) is a retired Chilean thoroughbred jockey who has been honored by the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in the United States.