Aaron Tod Gryder (born June 5, 1970, in West Covina, California) is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey.
Aaron Tod Gryder (born June 5, 1970, in West Covina, California) is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey.
At age 16 in 1986, Gryder began his career as a professional jockey in Tijuana, Mexico at Agua Caliente Racetrack. His first winner came in 1987 at Agua Caliente aboard Ragen Henry. [1] Gryder returned to the United States to ride at Santa Anita Park. His first win came on long shot horse with no left eye named One Eyed Romeo. [2] He later rode at Hollywood Park as an apprentice jockey, and became the first and only apprentice jockey to ever win the Leading Rider title in the track's 75-year history. [3] Gryder has also won several Leading Rider titles at Churchill Downs, Arlington Park, Aqueduct Racetrack, and Golden Gate Fields. [4]
In 2009, Gryder rode Well Armed to a win in the world's richest race, the $6,000,000 Dubai World Cup, finishing 14 lengths in front of Gloria De Campeao, the largest margin of victory in the history of the race. [5] Gryder won the 2012 G1 Breeders' Cup Marathon on long shot Calidoscopio. [3] At the time of his retirement, Gryder had more than 4,000 victories internationally, [6]
Beyond racing, Gryder appeared in television's Dellaventura [7] and The Sopranos . [8] He has worked as an On-Air Analyst for ESPN, NBC Sports, Fox Sports, TVG Network, and HRTV. [9] He was one of the six jockeys featured in Animal Planet's 2009 reality documentary, Jockeys. [10] Gryder retired from racing in 2020. [1] He joined Stronach Group in 2021 as Vice President of racing industry relations. [11]
| Chart (2000–present) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2000 | 12 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2001 | 21 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2002 | 43 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2003 | 61 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2004 | 39 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2005 | 43 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2006 | 43 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2007 | 40 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2008 | 47 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2009 | 37 |
| National Earnings List for Jockeys 2012 | 90 |
George Edward Arcaro, was an American Thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who won more American classic races than any other jockey in history and is the only rider to have won the U.S. Triple Crown twice. He is widely regarded as the greatest jockey in the history of American Thoroughbred horse racing. Arcaro was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of an impoverished taxi driver. His parents, Pasquale and Josephine, were Italian immigrants and his father held a number of jobs, including taxi driver and operator of an illegal liquor enterprise during Prohibition. Arcaro was born prematurely, and weighed just three pounds at birth; because of this, he was smaller than his classmates and was rejected when he tried out for a spot on a baseball team. His full height would reach just five-foot, two inches. Eventually nicknamed "Banana Nose" by his confreres, Arcaro won his first race in 1932 at the Agua Caliente racetrack in Tijuana, Mexico; he was 16 years old. In 1934, the inaugural year of Narragansett Park, Arcaro was a comparative unknown who rode many of his early career races at 'Gansett.
A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual who rode horses in racing. They must be light, typically around a weight of 100-120 lb. and physically fit. They are typically self employed and are paid a small fee from the horse trainer and a percentage of the horse's winnings.
Julieann Louise Krone, is a retired American jockey. In 1993, she became the first female jockey to win a Triple Crown race when she captured the Belmont Stakes aboard Colonial Affair. In 2000, she became the first woman inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, and in 2003 became the first female jockey to win a Breeders' Cup race. She has also been honored by induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame and Cowgirl Hall of Fame.
Gary Lynn Stevens is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey, actor, and sports analyst. He became a professional jockey in 1979 and rode his first of three Kentucky Derby winners in 1988. He had nine wins in Triple Crown races, winning the Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes three times each, as well as ten Breeders' Cup races. He was also a nine-time winner of the Santa Anita Derby. He entered the United States Racing Hall of Fame in 1997. Combining his U.S. and international wins, Stevens had over 5,000 race wins by 2005, and reached his 5,000th North American win on February 15, 2015.
Wantha Davis was an American female jockey in thoroughbred horse racing.
Alex O. Solis is a jockey based in the United States. He lives in Glendora, California and rides predominantly in Southern California. He got his big break and his first gained national prominence when he won the 1986 Preakness Stakes with Snow Chief. In 2014, he was elected to the horse racing hall of fame and on January 1, 2015, became the 29th jockey in North American history to have 5,000 wins.
Todd Kabel was a Canadian Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. A native of McCreary, Manitoba, he began his career as a jockey at Assiniboia Downs in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in 1987 started competing at tracks in Ontario, moving to Toronto permanently in 1991.
John R. Velazquez is a Puerto Rican jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. He began his career in Puerto Rico and moved to New York in 1990. In 2004 and 2005 he was the United States Champion Jockey by earnings and both years was given the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey. He was inducted into the Horse Racing Hall of Fame in 2012, rode his 5,000th winner in 2013, and became the leading money-earning jockey in the history of the sport in 2014.
Corey S. Nakatani is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He got his big break in 1990 when he rode Itsallgreektome to win big stakes races.
David Romero Flores is a Mexican jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Ramón A. Domínguez is a retired Eclipse Award-winning champion jockey and Hall of Fame member in American thoroughbred horse racing.
Alan Garcia is a Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He was Peru's leading apprentice jockey in 2003 and in that same year he began racing in the United States at the Meadowlands Racetrack where he was also the leading apprentice. His father and grandfather were both jockeys in Peru. He is currently married and lives in Port Saint Lucie, Florida, with his wife and 3 sons. Garcia got his big break in 2007 when he won the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf. This was his first ever Breeders' Cup ride. The win, on Lahudood, meant that he was the third jockey ever to win his first Breeders' Cup race in his first attempt.
Chantal Sutherland is a Canadian model, television personality and jockey in North American Thoroughbred horse racing. She is referred to as the Danica Patrick of horse racing. She is known for her appearances on the reality tv show, Jockeys on Animal Planet, as well as being the poster girl for the Del Mar racetrack. During an interview on Sky Sports in the lead-up to the Dubai World Cup race, she said that her primary vocation was jockey.
Anna Rose "Rosie" Napravnik is a former American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey and two-time winner of the Kentucky Oaks. Beginning her career in 2005, she was regularly ranked among the top jockeys in North America in both earnings and total races won. By 2014 she had been in the top 10 by earnings three years in a row and was the highest-ranked woman jockey in North America. In 2011, she won the Louisiana Derby for her first time and was ninth in the 2011 Kentucky Derby with the horse Pants on Fire. In 2012 she broke the total wins and earnings record for a woman jockey previously held by Julie Krone, and became the first woman rider to win the Kentucky Oaks, riding Believe You Can. She won the Oaks for a second time in 2014 on Untapable. She is only the second woman jockey to win a Breeders' Cup race and the first to win more than one, having won the 2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile on Shanghai Bobby and the 2014 Breeders' Cup Distaff on Untapable. Napravnik's fifth-place finish in the 2013 Kentucky Derby and third in the 2013 Preakness Stakes on Mylute are the best finishes for a woman jockey in those two Triple Crown races to date, and she is the only woman to have ridden in all three Triple Crown races.
Earl Dew was an American champion jockey in the sport of thoroughbred horse racing who was being hailed as one of the most promising riders of his generation when he died at age nineteen as a result of a racing accident.
Eddie Dugan was a jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing who won three American Classic Races and two Canadian Classic Races. In addition, Dugan raced and won in Russia.
Joel Rosario is a Champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing, originally from the Dominican Republic. In the space of five weeks in 2013 he rode the winners of the Dubai World Cup and the Kentucky Derby. More recently, he rode Knicks Go to wins in the Pegasus World Cup, Whitney Stakes, and Breeders' Cup Classic in 2021.
Channing Hill is an American jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Irad Ortiz Jr. is a Puerto Rican jockey who has been a leading rider in the New York Thoroughbred horse racing circuit since 2012. He won his first Breeders' Cup race on Lady Eli in 2014, and his first American Classic on Creator in the 2016 Belmont Stakes.
Drayden Van Dyke is a jockey in thoroughbred racing. At graded stakes races, Van Dyke has won 67 events ranging from Grade I to Grade III. Of these wins, Van Dyke has won both the Starlet Stakes and Yellow Ribbon Handicap four times. As a Breeders' Cup jockey, Van Dyke won the Turf Sprint event at the 2018 Breeders' Cup. He was also runner-up at the Breeders' Cup Mile event in 2018 and the Dirt Mile at the 2021 Breeders' Cup.