Don Pierce, a Hall of Fame jockey who won 10 stakes at Del Mar, died Monday, Oct. 5, in Denton, Texas. He was 89.

Pierce died after a lengthy battle with cancer, Blood Horse reported. The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame announced his death Thursday, Oct. 8, on social media. His brother Larry Pierce, a former jockey, also posted the news, according to the AP.

Del Mar was Pierce's favorite track. His daughter, Connie Markum, told Blood Horse that the family owned a ranch near Escondido but rented a house at Del Mar every summer during the meet.

"Dad and Shoe would golf before they had to go to the jock's room, and I remember sack races and chasing rabbits through the infield, or the parties they'd have for the jockeys' and trainers' kids," Markum told Blood Horse in its Thursday obituary.

Pierce won the Del Mar Debutante four times, the Del Mar Derby three times and the Del Mar Oaks three times, according to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He also won the Hollywood Oaks four times and the Santa Anita Handicap four times.

Across his career, Pierce compiled 3,546 wins from 28,740 mounts and earned $39,018,422 in purses, according to the Paulick Report. He won 351 stakes races. In 1973, he led all North American jockeys with 32 stakes victories.

Born April 13, 1937, in Clebit, Oklahoma, Pierce was one of six children in a blue-collar family. His father worked in the logging industry and moved the family to the Pacific Northwest. Pierce won his first race at 17 in 1954 at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico aboard a horse named Supplier.

He hitchhiked to California as a teenager. When he reached Hollywood Park and found the meet was over, he headed south to Del Mar, where trainer Jack Howard taught him the nuances of race riding, the AP reported.

Pierce rode for Hall of Fame trainers William Molter, Charlie Whittingham and Robert Wheeler. He competed day to day against Bill Shoemaker, Eddie Arcaro, Johnny Longden, Laffit Pincay Jr. and Chris McCarron, among others. He ranked among Southern California racing's biggest names for three decades.

Among the top horses Pierce rode were Ack Ack, Flying Paster, Triple Bend and Princessnessian. He rode Princessnessian to a victory over males in the 1968 Hollywood Gold Cup, capping a five-win day. Pierce also credited Silky Sullivan with launching his fame, recalling during a 2016 appearance at Keeneland that the come-from-behind runner "put me on the road to fame."

Pierce received the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1967, an honor given to riders whose careers and character exemplify the sport. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010.

After retiring in the mid-1980s, Pierce trained horses from 1985 to 1995, saddling 37 winners and earning $748,635 in purses, Blood Horse reported. He then worked as part of the clockers' crew timing morning workouts at Del Mar.

Pierce lived in Oceanside until about a year before his death, when declining health required him to move closer to family. He spent his final months in an assisted living facility in Denton.

Markum told Blood Horse that her father never stopped thinking about the sport, even as his health declined. Pierce is survived by Markum; sons Don Pierce Jr. and Edward Pierce, both in California; five grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and his brother Larry.

Del Mar Racetrack posted a tribute on X on Thursday, calling Pierce a Hall of Famer and legendary Southern California jockey. After retirement, Pierce had risen before dawn to time workouts at the track he loved most.