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. The job has a very high risk of debilitating or life-threatening injuries.
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.
Jerry D. Bailey is an NBC Sports thoroughbred racing analyst and a retired American Hall of Fame jockey. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest jockeys of all time.
Tampa Bay Downs is an American Thoroughbred horse racing facility located in Westchase in Hillsborough County in the U.S. state of Florida, just outside Tampa. It opened in 1926 under the name Tampa Downs, and has also been known as Sunshine Park and Florida Downs and Turf Club.
Oliver Eric Guerin was an American Hall of Fame jockey.
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.
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.
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.
Mark Guidry is a former American jockey. He ranks 22nd among jockeys in career wins with 5,222 wins as of March 7, 2014, the date of his last ride. He subsequently announced his retirement from riding to become a jockey's agent. This was Guidry's second retirement. He initially retired in 2007 and did not ride again for 4 more years.
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.
José C. Ferrer is a Puerto Rican jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing. He began riding in the United States in 1983 at Calder Race Course in Florida then at Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands Racetrack in New Jersey. On November 24, 1983, Ferrer became the first jockey to win five races on a single card at the Meadowlands.
Douglas Allan Dodson was a Champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.
Michael Manganello is a retired American Thoroughbred horse racing jockey.
Jose Lezcano is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. He rides in New York in the spring, summer and fall and spends the winter in Florida. His big break came in 2008 when he won a Breeders' Cup race.
Donna Barton Brothers is a former jockey who won over 1,100 horse races and now covers horse racing and other equestrian sports for NBC Sports and USA Network. She is probably most recognizable for her interviews with the winning jockeys from horseback after the Triple Crown and Breeders' Cup races. She is one of the most decorated female jockeys of her time, retiring in 1998 with 1,130 career wins and still ranks second on the money list. Brothers hails from a family of riders, including both of her siblings, as well as her mother who was, in 1969, one of the first women to be licensed as a jockey. She resides in Louisville, Kentucky.
Florent Geroux is a jockey who has earned over 1,700 wins in American thoroughbred horse racing, including the 2017 Breeders' Cup Classic on Gun Runner, two Breeders' Cup Distaff wins with Monomoy Girl, and the 2021 Kentucky Derby on Mandaloun.
Antonio "Tony" Vega was a Puerto Rican American Thoroughbred jockey and community activist from New Brunswick, New Jersey. He was a graded stakes winning, three-time champion jockey who competed in North American horse racing from 1982 to 2012.
Mary L. Russ is a retired jockey in Thoroughbred horse racing who was the first female rider in North America to win a Grade 1 race, the first to earn more than $1 million in purses in a season, and the first to win a major race meet. She was inducted into the Calder Race Course Hall of Fame in 2003. While still an apprentice, on February 28, 1982, Mary Russ became the first female jockey to win a Grade 1 race when she captured the 1982 edition of the Widener Handicap aboard Lord Darnley, trained by Roger Laurin, at Hialeah Park in Florida. That same year, aboard Majestic Cat, she won the 1982 New York City Big Apple OTB Handicap and the Albany Stakes, two of the three races that would comprise the Big Apple Triple.
Hollie Doyle is a British jockey who competes in flat racing. She set a new record for winners ridden in a British season by a female jockey in 2019. She came third in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award 2020, and was also named The Sunday Times sportswoman of the year. In June 2022 she became the first female jockey to win a French Classic and the first female jockey to win a European Group 1 Classic when she rode Nashwa to victory in the Prix de Diane at Chantilly. In 2022, she came joint second in the Flat Jockeys' Championship, the highest result for a woman to date.
Ruben Hernandez is a retired Thoroughbred racing jockey best known for winning the 1979 Belmont Stakes aboard Coastal in which he defeated that year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Spectacular Bid thereby denying him the coveted U.S. Triple Crown.
