Juarez reaches 2,000 Thoroughbred wins

Alfredo Juarez Jr. scored the 2,000th Thoroughbred win of his career aboard Chuchuluco at Zia Park on Sunday (Zia Park/Coady Photography) In the midst of one of the best seasons of his career, jockey Alfredo Juarez Jr. reached a milestone on Sunday at Zia Park with his 2,000th career Thoroughbred victory. Juarez piloted Chuchuluco to a gate-to-wire win in Sunday’s 8TH race to reach 2,000. “Getting to 2,000 shows the dedication, success, and hard work I’ve put in my whole career,” Juarez remarked. Juarez said that as he crossed the finish line for a 1 1/2-length victory in the five-furlong optional claiming contest, hitting him was the emotion inspired by all the hard work necessary to reach 2,000 victories and by his family — wife, Lisa, daughter, Ashlee, and son, Giancarlo — in Albuquerque. “It’s a weird feeling because when you’re in the lead and passing the wire, everything comes to you in that moment,” he mused. “I kept thinking about my family that’s not here with me and all the stuff that we’ve been through.” Colleagues from the jockey colony at Zia Park — including Dusty Shepherd, Enrique Gomez and Ry Eikleberry — joined Juarez for his milestone moment in the winner’s circle.

“That was really fun,” Juarez said. “They’re my second family. I spend so
much time at the track with them. That was really nice for them to be there with
me in the winner’s circle.”

Juarez, 37, began his career as a jockey in his hometown of
Mexico City in 1992 at Hipódromo de las Américas and started riding in New
Mexico when he came to the United States in 1996.

Juarez became a U.S. citizen last year and is currently having one of the most successful seasons of
his career. He has performed particularly well this year in New Mexico-bred
stakes races. Juarez rode five winners on August 24 during the Lineage Weekend
of New Mexico-bred stakes races at the Downs at Albuquerque. He also captured
four New Mexico-bred stakes races on the Zia Festival card at Ruidoso Downs on
July 28.

Along the way to 2,000 wins, Juarez said the most memorable
victory of his career came when he rode 54-1 longshot Rumsontheriver to a
dead-heat victory in the 2000 Hawthorne Derby. Rumsontheriver and Juarez
dead-heated with Hymn and all-time great jockey Laffit Pincay Jr., a winner of
9,530 career races and one of Juarez’s idols.

“Heading into the lane I was dead last, and it was an
amazing finish,” Juarez said about the race on turf at Hawthorne. “To dead-heat
with Laffit Pincay, who was one of my heroes growing up, was really cool. That
was one of my favorite races ever.”

One of the best horses Juarez has ridden was 2002 Kentucky
Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem. Juarez piloted War Emblem to a debut win
in a maiden special weight race at Arlington Park in 2001 and an allowance
victory at Sportsman’s Park in 2002 before the colt Emblem won the first two legs of
the Triple Crown.

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