Joseph Culmone (May 13, 1931 – July 23, 1996) was an American Champion jockey. in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing. Joe Culmone was born in Delia, Sicily, where he lived in a farming area and learned to ride horses. His mother died during World War II and in 1946 he emigrated to the United States to join his father in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He began working as a stable hand and exercise rider at the Atlantic City Race Course and embarked on his jockey career at Florida's Tropical Park Race Track in late 1948. A year later he was meeting with great success as an apprentice rider, scoring back-to-back triple wins on racecards at Tropical Park in December 1949. [1] In 1950 Culmone tied the great Bill Shoemaker for the most wins of any jockey in the United States with 388, a total th