Brian Hernandez Jr.

Last updated
Brian Hernandez Jr.
Occupation Jockey
Born (1985-11-03) November 3, 1985 (age 38)
Lafayette, Louisiana
Career wins2,306 (2/25/2022) [1]
Major racing wins
Louisiana Handicap (2004)
Remington Springboard Mile Stakes (2004)
Indiana Derby (2006, 2012)
Edgewood Stakes (2007)
Ack Ack Handicap (2012)
Cornhusker Handicap (2012)
Indiana Derby (2012)
Indiana Oaks (2012, 2023)
Whitney Handicap (2012)
Beaumont Stakes (2013)
Illinois Derby (2013)
Opening Verse Stakes (2016, 2020)

Breeders' Cup wins:
Breeders' Cup Classic (2012)

Racing awards
U.S. Champion Apprentice Jockey (2004)
Significant horses
Fort Larned, Rachel Alexandra, McCraken

Brian Joseph Hernandez Jr. (born November 3, 1985, in Lafayette, Louisiana) is an American Eclipse Award-winning jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. He began riding professionally in 2003 and got his first win on November 29 of that year at Louisiana's Delta Downs. [2]

Contents

In 2004, Hernandez won 243 races and was voted the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. In 2009 he rode Rachel Alexandra to two wins in her first five starts. [3] On August 18, 2012, he won the 1,000th race of his career at Ellis Park Race Course [4] and on November 3, 2012, his 27th birthday, he won the most important race of his career aboard Fort Larned, in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park.[ citation needed ]

Year-end charts

Chart (2004–present)Peak
position
National Earnings List for Jockeys 200445
National Earnings List for Jockeys 200595
National Earnings List for Jockeys 200953
National Earnings List for Jockeys 201094
National Earnings List for Jockeys 201220
National Earnings List for Jockeys 201337
National Earnings List for Jockeys 201451
National Earnings List for Jockeys 201532

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mike E. Smith</span> American jockey

Michael Earl Smith is an American jockey who has been one of the leading riders in U.S. Thoroughbred racing since the early 1990s, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2003 and has won the most Breeders' Cup races of any jockey with 27 victories. Smith is also the third leading jockey of all time in earnings with over $336 million. In 2018, Smith rode Justify to the Triple Crown, becoming the oldest jockey to win the title at age 52.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kent Desormeaux</span> American jockey (b. 1970)

Kent Jason Desormeaux is an American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey who holds the U.S. record for most races won in a single year with 598 wins in 1989. He has won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes three times each, and the Belmont Stakes once. Aboard Real Quiet, he lost the 1998 Triple Crown by a nose.

Robby J. Albarado is an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He began riding at the age of 10 and progressed to riding at bush tracks in his native Louisiana by the age of 12. After turning professional, he earned his first official win at Evangeline Downs in 1990. Since then, he has won more than 5,000 races, but his career has endured setbacks as a result of serious injuries. During 1998 and 1999, he suffered two skull fractures, one of which required doctors to replace a damaged portion of his skull with titanium mesh and polymer plate. Another serious accident in the fall of 2000 kept him out of racing for the better part of 2001.

Rosemary Homeister Jr. is a retired American jockey in Thoroughbred racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Calvin Borel</span> American jockey

Calvin H. Borel is an American jockey in thoroughbred horse racing and rode the victorious mount in the 2007 Kentucky Derby, the 2009 Kentucky Derby and the 2010 Kentucky Derby. His 2009 Derby win with Mine That Bird was the third biggest upset in Derby history,, and Borel's winning margin of 6+34 lengths was the greatest in Derby history since Assault won by 8 lengths in 1946. On May 1, 2009, Borel won the Kentucky Oaks aboard Rachel Alexandra, only the second time since 1993 that a jockey has won the Oaks-Derby combo, and just the seventh time overall a jockey has accomplished this feat in the same year. On May 16, 2009, Borel won the 2009 Preakness Stakes at Pimlico with thoroughbred filly Rachel Alexandra. In doing so, Borel became the first jockey to win the first two jewels of the Triple Crown on different mounts. Borel's nickname is "Bo'rail'" due to his penchant for riding close to the rail to save ground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Julien Leparoux</span> French Eclipse Award winning jockey (born 1983)

Julien R. Leparoux is a French Eclipse Award winning jockey currently racing in the United States. He has won seven Breeders' Cup races, including the 2015 Breeders' Cup Mile with Champion Turf Mare Tepin and the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile with Classic Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramon Domínguez</span>

Ramón A. Domínguez is a retired Eclipse Award-winning champion jockey and Hall of Fame member in American thoroughbred horse racing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Asmussen</span> American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer

Steven Mark Asmussen is an American Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. The leading trainer in North America by wins, he is a two-time winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2016. His horses have won the Breeders' Cup Classic, Preakness Stakes, Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes, Breeders' Cup Distaff, Kentucky Oaks and Dubai World Cup.

The Rachel Alexandra Stakes is a Grade II American Thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old fillies at a distance of one and one sixteenth miles on the dirt run annually in February at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. The event currently offers a purse of $300,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosie Napravnik</span> American 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2009 Kentucky Derby</span> 135th running of the Kentucky Derby

The 2009 Kentucky Derby was the 135th running of the Kentucky Derby. The value of the race was $2,177,000 in stakes. The race was sponsored by Yum! Brands and hence officially was called Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands. The race took place on May 2, 2009, and was televised in the United States on the NBC television network. The Atlanta-based Southern Tourism Society named the Kentucky Derby Festival, which was April 11 to May 1, as one of the top tourist attractions in the Southeast for the first half of 2009. The post time was 6:24 p.m. EDT. The official attendance at Churchill Downs was 153,563.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Alexandra</span> American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Rachel Alexandra is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse and the 2009 Horse of the Year. When she won the 2009 Preakness Stakes, the second leg of the Triple Crown, she became the first filly to win the race in 85 years. She also won races in six states, on eight different tracks, against fillies and Grade 1 colts and older horses, achieving a long string of consecutive wins including numerous Grade 1 stakes. Rachel Alexandra neared or broke multiple stakes records, track records and winning margin records throughout her career. On September 28, 2010, owner Jess Jackson announced Rachel Alexandra's retirement. She was bred to 2007–2008 Horse of the Year Curlin and delivered a colt on January 22, 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blame (horse)</span> American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Blame is a retired American champion Thoroughbred racehorse, a winner of nine races in 13 starts including the prestigious Breeders' Cup Classic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Lovato Jr.</span> Jockey

Frank "Frankie" Lovato Jr. is a retired American Thoroughbred jockey, inventor, and educator of horse racing. His racing career spanned from 1979 until 2004. Including one additional race in 2012, Lovato rode a total of 15,604 mounts, with 1,686 wins and finishing in the money on another 3,506. This total included wins in 111 stakes races at 25 different tracks. The horses he rode earned a total of $41,795,367. In 1980 he won the Eclipse Award for Apprentice Jockey. He later went on to invent a horse riding simulator called the Equicizer and founded an educational and training program called Jockey World.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shackleford (horse)</span> American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Shackleford is a chestnut Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2011 Preakness Stakes. He also finished second in the 2011 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and won the Metropolitan Handicap and Clark Handicap in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mucho Macho Man</span> American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse

Mucho Macho Man is an American Thoroughbred racehorse who won the 2013 Breeders' Cup Classic. He was foaled in Florida and named after the Village People song "Macho Man". His breeders were Carole and John Rio of Florida, who owned his dam. His foalhood nickname was "Lazarus" because he appeared lifeless at birth, but spontaneously revived. He grew to be a very large horse, standing over 17 hands high. Throughout most of his racing career, Mucho Macho Man was primarily owned by Dean and Patti Reeves of Reeves Thoroughbred Racing of Suwanee, Georgia. They purchased a majority interest in him after his first race in 2010, and in 2012 became his sole owners. In February 2014, Frank Stronach purchased an undisclosed share in the horse on behalf of his Adena Springs Farms, owner of Mucho Macho Man's sire, Macho Uno.

Fort Larned is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2012 Breeders' Cup Classic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corey Lanerie</span> American jockey

Corey James Lanerie is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. Based in Kentucky, he has won 19 jockey titles at Churchill Downs and has won meets at Ellis Park, Lone Star Park, Sam Houston and Retama Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irad Ortiz Jr.</span> Puerto Rican jockey (born 1992)

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. He won the 2022 Belmont Stakes on Mo Donegal.

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.

References

  1. "Equibase". Equibase. Retrieved 2013-04-21.
  2. Post Times. "Brian Hernandez Jr. profile at Churchill Downs". Churchilldowns.com. Archived from the original on 2013-04-27. Retrieved 2013-04-21.
  3. NYRA - Rachel Alexandria racing history [ dead link ]
  4. Thoroughbred Times - August 18, 2012