Jack Kaenel  "Cowboy" Jack Leroy Kaenel (born July 27, 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska) is a retired American jockey in Thoroughbred racing who, at age 16, became the youngest rider to ever win the second leg of the U.S. Triple Crown series when he rode Aloma's Ruler to victory in the 1982 Preakness Stakes. Widely known as "Cowboy" Jack Kaenel, he grew up in Thoroughbred racing with a father who had been a jockey and a trainer at racetracks in the U. S. Midwest. While still a boy of eleven, Jack Kaenel began riding at bush tracks and even after he had won the Preakness Stakes he told a reporter that his greatest thrill in racing was the day he won the $400 Watermelon Derby in Rocky Ford, Colorado at the age of twelve. Kaenel began his professional riding career in Canada where at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba he declared he was the legal age of sixteen to get a jockey license and produced a State of Kansas birth certificate showing a July 27, 1964 date of birth. Making his debut on September 12, 1980, Kaenel quickly showed he was a rider of considerable talent, winning 20 races during the race meet including four in one day. When the Assiniboia Downs season ended, Kaenel returned to the United States where he raced until May 5, 1981 when it was learned that his birth certificate had been a fake and he was actually fifteen years old. His jockey license was revoked and he went back to riding at the Midwest bush tracks for the next three months until he turned sixteen on July 27. Kaenel still had a good year in 1981 scoring a Grade 1 in the Selima Stakes aboard the good filly Snow Plow. Prior to the big race, Aloma's Ruler had won the January 20, 1982 Bahamas Stakes at Hialeah Park over a distance of seven furlongs. He was ridden by star jockey Angel Cordero for trainer John Lenzini and owner Nathan Scherr, a Baltimore contractor. In that race Aloma's Ruler beat some of the top three-year-olds competing on the U. S. East Coast including Deputy Minister. A week later the colt injured an ankle during a workout and would not race again until the end of April when he ran second in an allowance race. Just one week before the Preakness, Aloma's Ruler was scheduled to run in the Withers Stakes, a mile race at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York.