Rafael Meza

Last updated
Rafael Meza
Occupation Jockey
Born (1958-02-19) February 19, 1958 (age 64)
Tijuana, Mexico
Major racing wins
Del Mar Derby (1983)
Speakeasy Stakes (1983)
El Conejo Handicap (1984)
Frank E. Kilroe Mile Handicap (1984)
Mervyn Leroy Handicap (1984)
San Luis Obispo Handicap (1984)
Santa Catalina Stakes (1984)
Bay Meadows Handicap (1985)
Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap (1985)
San Diego Handicap (1985)
San Rafael Stakes (1985)
Autumn Days Handicap (1985, 1989)
Stuyvesant Handicap (1985)
Excelsior Handicap (1986)
Las Virgenes Stakes (1986)
Metropolitan Handicap (1986)
New Orleans Handicap (1986)
San Fernando Stakes (1986)
Westchester Handicap (1986)
Comely Stakes (1987)
Del Mar Oaks (1988)
San Simeon Handicap (1988)
Morvich Handicap (1989)
San Carlos Handicap (1989)
Bing Crosby Handicap (1990)
Eddie Read Stakes (1990)
Oak Tree Invitational Stakes (1990)
Pat O'Brien Handicap (1990)
Golden Gate Handicap (1991)
El Camino Real Derby (1993)
Bay Meadows Derby (1997, 1999)
California Derby (1998)
Yerba Buena Handicap (2000)
Significant horses
Garthorn, Snow Chief, Super Diamond

Rafael Q. Meza (born February 19, 1958) is an American retired jockey who competed in Thoroughbred horse racing in the United States. [1]

A native of Tijuana, Mexico, [2] Meza began riding in California near the end of the 1970s. [3] and would spend his career riding from a base in that State. In 1982 he was the second- leading rider at the spring/summer meeting at Golden Gate Fields [4] and enjoyed his best year in racing in 1986 when he won six important races at tracks in California, New York and Louisiana.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wayne Rainey</span> American motorcycle racer (born 1960)

Wayne Wesley Rainey is an American former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he won the 500cc World Championship three times and the Daytona 200 once. He was characterized by his smooth, calculating riding style, and for his intense rivalry with compatriot Kevin Schwantz, between 1987 and 1993.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenny Roberts</span> American motorcycle racer

Kenneth Leroy Roberts is an American former professional motorcycle racer and racing team owner. In 1978, he became the first American to win a Grand Prix motorcycle racing world championship. He was also a two-time winner of the A.M.A. Grand National Championship. Roberts is one of only four riders in American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) racing history to win the AMA Grand Slam, representing Grand National wins at a mile, half-mile, short-track, TT Steeplechase and road race events.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gary Stevens (jockey)</span> American jockey

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.

Juan Meza, also known for his nickname Kid Meza, is a Mexican former professional boxer who was world Super Bantamweight champion. Meza was born in Mexicali, Mexico.

Russell Avery Baze is a retired horse racing jockey. He holds the record for the most race wins in North American horse racing history, and is a member of the United States Racing Hall of Fame and the State of Washington Sports Hall of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dario Resta</span> Dario Resta 1916 indy 500 champion

Dario Resta, nicknamed "Dolly", was an Italian Briton race car driver. He was the winner of the 1916 Indianapolis 500.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levi Leipheimer</span> American cyclist

Levi Leipheimer is an American former professional road racing cyclist. He was twice US national champion, winning the time trial title in 1999 and the road race in 2007, and is an Olympic medalist. Leipheimer was born and raised in Butte, Montana and resides in Santa Rosa, California. He is the patron of the widely attended King Ridge GranFondo, a mass participation ride in Sonoma County.

Christopher John McCarron is a retired American thoroughbred horse racing Hall of Fame jockey. He mounted his first horse ever at 16.5 years old and was racing professionally by 18. At only 19 years old Chris McCarron wove a spell that brought his mounts to the winner's circle 547 times in 1974, breaking all records for most races won in a year. The previous record was set by Sandy Hawley in 1973 with 515 wins in a year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garrett K. Gomez</span> American jockey

Garrett Keith Gomez was an American Thoroughbred jockey who won two Eclipse Awards and thirteen Breeders' Cup races during his career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jorge Ricardo</span>

Jorge Antonio Ricardo is a jockey in South American Thoroughbred horse racing who became the highest tally winning rider in the sport on 5 February 2007. He has since been passed by Canadian-born, California-based rider Russell Baze, but on 6 February 2018 he equaled Baze's record of 12,844 wins, and surpassed that record some six weeks later.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Espinoza</span>

Victor Espinoza is a Mexican jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing who won the Triple Crown in 2015 on American Pharoah. He began riding in his native Mexico and went on to compete at racetracks in California. He has won the Kentucky Derby three times, riding War Emblem in 2002, California Chrome in 2014, and American Pharoah in 2015. He also won the Preakness Stakes three times, in those same years and with the same horses. He was the first jockey in history to enter the Belmont Stakes with a third opportunity to win the Triple Crown; his 2015 victory made him the oldest jockey and first Hispanic jockey to accomplish the feat.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyler Baze</span> American Champion jockey

Tyler Baze is an American Champion jockey. He was born into a racing family, since both of his parents were jockeys, as is his uncle, Gary Baze. His second cousin is U.S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey Russell Baze.

Skywalker was an American Thoroughbred racehorse. He was best known for winning the 1986 Breeders' Cup Classic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hayden Roulston</span> New Zealand cyclist

Hayden Roulston is a former New Zealand professional racing cyclist. He won the silver medal in the men's 4000 m individual pursuit and a bronze medal in the men's 4000 m team pursuit at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. He won the New Zealand road cycling championships on four occasions, the Tour of Southland on three occasions and came tenth in the 2010 edition of Paris - Roubaix.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted King (cyclist)</span>

Edward Carrington King is a retired American professional road racing cyclist who last rode for UCI ProTeam Cannondale–Garmin. King turned professional in 2006 and raced for ten years, retiring from contemporary road racing in 2015. He quickly segued to the burgeoning world of gravel cycling, where he has been a pioneer in the world of competitive gravel racing.

Eddie Belmonte is a retired jockey who competed at the highest levels in Thoroughbred horse racing in his native Puerto Rico and in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur E. Redfern</span> American jockey (1885–1917)

Arthur Ewell Redfern was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who in 1903 was the highest paid rider in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Harmatz</span> American jockey

William Harmatz was an American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey who won the 1959 Preakness Stakes aboard Royal Orbit. The recipient of the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 1960, given to a jockey who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack, Harmatz was Jewish, and was inducted in the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fausto Isidro Meza Flores</span> Mexican drug trafficker

Fausto Isidro Meza Flores, commonly referred to by his criminal alias El Chapo Isidro, is a Mexican drug lord and high-ranking leader of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel, a drug trafficking organization. He is also the alleged leader of Los Mazatlecos and was right-hand man of the now deceased drug lord Héctor and the incarcerated Alfredo Beltrán Leyva. The FBI is offering a US$5 million bounty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Art Sherman</span> American horse trainer and former jockey (born 1937)

Art Sherman is a former American horse trainer and jockey. At the age of 77 he became the oldest trainer to win the Kentucky Derby. He began his career as a stable hand for Rex Ellsworth and Mesh Tenney. While working in Ellsworth's barn, he was the exercise rider for the 1955 Kentucky Derby winner Swaps and 1956 Kentucky Derby entrant Terrang. In 1957, Sherman became a licensed jockey, enjoying modest success, and began training horses in 1979. Sherman had trained ten Graded stakes winners and is credited with over 2,100 wins prior to becoming the trainer of California Chrome. He was hired to train California Chrome in 2013, due to his "old school" training techniques. Prior to the 2014 Kentucky Derby, he had conditioned the horse through four consecutive wins, and California Chrome entered the Derby as the favorite and won. Two weeks later, California Chrome also won the 2014 Preakness Stakes. Sherman is married and has two sons, Alan and Steve, both in the horse training business.

References