Junior Rafael Alvarado (born May 20, 1986) is a jockey in the sport of Thoroughbred racing who rode his first winner on December 30, 2005, at La Rinconada Hippodrome near Caracas, Venezuela before moving to ride in the United States in 2007 where he got his first winner on February 17 at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida. [3]
His father, Rafael Alvarado, was also a jockey in Venezuela. He had intended to record his son's birthname as Rafael Alvarado Jr. but it was mistakenly registered as Junior Rafael Alvarado. [4]
Junior Alvarado rode Mohaymen to a fourth-place finish in the 2016 Kentucky Derby and Enticed to a twelfth-place finish in the 2018 edition. In the 2012 Preakness Stakes he ran fourth aboard Zetterholm.
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.
Richard Migliore is a retired American jockey. He now works as a racing analyst for XBTV. He was nicknamed "The Mig," which is a type of Russian fighter jet, for his tenacious style of riding. He lives with his wife, Carmela, and children in Millbrook, New York.
Michael Joseph Venezia was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who was killed in a horse racing accident.
Mike Venezia Memorial Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing honor given annually by the New York Racing Association to honor a jockey who exemplifies extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship. The award was created in 1989 to honor the memory of jockey Mike Venezia, who was killed in a racing accident in October, 1988 at Belmont Park.
Javier Castellano is a Venezuelan 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.
James H. "Jimmy" Butwell was an American Racing Hall of Fame jockey. His birth year placed at the Family Search.org website is stated as 1896. However, although there were no child labor laws in the United States, it seems unlikely that he would have been a professional jockey at age twelve. A Michigan native, before his successful time riding in the New York City area, Jimmy Butwell began his career at small race tracks in Nebraska and Colorado. Butwell rode for several prominent owners and in 1912, a year he led all North American riders in earnings, he rode Monocacy to victory for Harry Payne Whitney in the Victoria Stakes at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Of his four mounts in the Kentucky Derby, Butwell's best finish was third in the 1915 running. He won the 1913 Preakness Stakes and captured the 1910 Belmont Stakes and the 1917 Belmont Stakes. In 1920 Butwell had more race wins than any jockey in the United States and the following year rode Herendesy to victory in Canada's most prestigious race, the King's Plate.
Rafael Bejarano is a champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. He trained at the Peruvian national riding school before embarking on his professional career in 1999. Having met with success, including winning the apprentice riding title at Hipódromo de Monterrico in Lima, he emigrated to the United States in the spring of 2002 and settled in Louisville, Kentucky. He got his first win on July 10 that year at River Downs in Cincinnati, Ohio and went on to major race wins in Kentucky and on the New York Racing Association circuit.
Peter D. Anderson was an American jockey and Thoroughbred racehorse trainer. He began his riding career in the latter part of the late 1940s and was the leading apprentice jockey in New York in 1948. Like many of his compatriots, Anderson struggled throughout his career to maintain his weight.
Eibar Coa Monteverde is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Alan Garcia is a Peruvian 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.
Ruperto Donoso was a jockey in the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing best known for riding Phalanx to victory in the 1947 Belmont Stakes. He also rode Gilded Knight to a second-place finish in the 1939 Preakness Stakes.
Rajiv Maragh is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. An Indo-Jamaican, he is the son of a jockey who rode in Jamaica before relocating to Florida where he began a career as a horse trainer.
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.
José L. Ortiz is a Puerto Rican jockey who has been a rider on the New York Thoroughbred horse racing circuit since 2012. In 2016, he was the leading jockey in North America by number of wins, including his first win at the Breeders' Cup. In 2017, he earned the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey after he led the earnings list and won his first Triple Crown race, the 2017 Belmont Stakes. In 2019, he won the Kentucky Oaks. In 2022, he won the Preakness Stakes, his second Triple Crown race win.
Lester Anthony Balaski was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey, a soldier who served his country during World War II, and a founding director and a First Vice-President of the Jockeys' Guild who died as a result of injuries suffered in an August 22, 1964, racing accident at Agua Caliente Racetrack in Mexico. A resident of Chula Vista, California, he had been transported from the racetrack to Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California where he died ten days later.
Eugene Hildebrand was an American National Champion jockey in Thoroughbred racing who won the 1904 Preakness Stakes and the 1905 Belmont Stakes, races that would become part of the U.S. Triple Crown series.
Robert Constantin "Bobby" Permane was a Thoroughbred horse racing jockey whose successful career included riding future Hall of Fame inductee Stymie to thirteen wins. Fittingly, in 1951 Permane won the Stymie Purse at Bowie Race Track in Maryland.
Paul J. Bailey was an American jockey in Thoroughbred racing who, on June 26, 1959, set a New York Racing Association record with five wins from five mounts on a single racecard at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It would be another 21 years before anyone matched that feat when both Jeffrey Fell and Jorge Velásquez did it during the month of June in 1980.
Luis Saez in Panama City, Panama) is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. Saez rode Maximum Security to finish first in the 2019 Kentucky Derby but was subsequently disqualified due to interference. The two later won the world's richest race, the $20,000,000 Saudi Cup, in 2020. Saez won his first Breeders' Cup race in 2020 and first American Classic in 2021, both with champion Essential Quality.