Jockey Luis Saez wins 4,000th race in North America
Jockey Luis Saez notched his 4,000th career victory on Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, guiding the Norm Casse-trained Rothschild to a frontrunning victory in Race 2, an 11-furlong inner turf optional claimer for 3-year-olds and up.
The 5-year-old Uncle Mo gelding exited the inside post sharply and was hustled to the front by Saez, rattling off fractions of 24.24 seconds, 48.66 and 1:16.16 in the three-turn affair over firm turf. At the top of the lane, Rothschild shrugged off a challenge from the Chad Brown-trained Arkhipov, and then held off another Brown trainee in Grade 2-winner Asbury Park for a half-length victory in a final time of 2:15.61.
"I just tried to be confident,” said Saez, who is represented by agent Kiaran McLaughlin. “I know we're going to keep winning races. I just try to do the right thing on every horse I ride and try to win every race I can.
“I'm very grateful,” Saez added. “It means a lot to me - hard work, always up and down on the road. I want to give thanks to my wife [Andrea] too, she's always there for me, my whole family and Mr. Kiaran working pretty hard every morning. To win 4,000 races is something I never expected."
Saez, 34, is from Panama City, Panama, and is a graduate of that country’s Laffit Pincay, Jr. Jockey Training Academy. He won his first North American race on August 20, 2009 when he guided Fearless Honor to victory at Calder Race Course.
“I came out of the jockey school, and everybody wins at that time, and it took me three months to win my first race,” Saez recalled of his early struggles in Panama. “It was pretty difficult, but after I won that...thank God I'm here."
Saez has won the Belmont Stakes twice, first with Essential Quality in 2021 at Belmont Park and then with Dornoch in 2024 at the Spa. He also partnered with Essential Quality to take the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and 2021 Travers. Saez’s prior Travers victory came in 2013 with Will Take Charge, and the tandem also took that year’s Pennsylvania Derby and Clark Handicap.
"So many good memories over here,” Saez said of riding at Saratoga. “Dornoch [had his first start] over here and then won the Belmont Stakes. It's something I will never forget and will live with us forever. Big memories."
With the popular Casa Creed, Saez captured four graded stakes, including three Grade 1 scores in the 2022 Jaipur at Belmont Park and the 2022-23 editions of the Fourstardave at Saratoga. He has won the Fourstardave two other times, in 2015 with Grand Arch and with Halladay in 2020. He landed a major international triumph in 2021 when piloting Mystic Guide in the Group 1 Dubai World Cup. That year, Saez won Saratoga’s Angel Cordero riding title with 64 wins.
"It's very special. This is a place everybody wants to be,” Saez said of the Spa. “This is a tough meet right now and I'm pretty grateful to be here."
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