Jockey Luis Quinonez rode his 4,000th career winner on Friday afternoon at Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Ark., guiding Martin Guzman's' Izeonpoint to a last-to-first victory for trainer Renay Borel in the afternoon's fifth race, a $7,500 claiming event for fillies and mares going six furlongs.
Quinonez, who turns 57 on Jan. 6, became the 83rd North American jockey to reach 4,000 wins, according to Equibase. His 4,000th victory came on his 27,632nd mount, and the lifetime earnings of the horses he's ridden exceed $81 million.
Russell Baze retired as the all-time leader with 12,842 career wins.
A member of the Halls of Fame at Canterbury Park and Remington Park, Quinonez came to the United States at the age of 18 after growing up on his family's farm in Sinaloa, Mexico, where he recalled riding a mule to school as a young boy. An uncle found him work at the racetrack in New Mexico, where he walked hots and groomed, started galloping horses, and, eventually, getting his jockeys license.
Quinonez rode in his first races at the Downs at Albuquerque in April 1989, then moved north to Canterbury Park, where he won aboard his first mount there and his 10th overall on Duffel's Dazzler on May 10, 1989.
Quinonez recalled that first win to Ed Godrey, writing for the The Oklahoman in 2017. “I rode the horse, win the race and they take my picture and I never forget, everybody left,” Quinonez said. “I was there by myself. I didn't know what to do except follow the horse back to the barn. Then somebody came up and said, 'no, you got to go the other way' to the jocks' room.”
His best year, in terms of money and races won, came in 2008 when his mount earnings totaled $4,733,152 from 201 wins in 983 mounts. He was leading rider five consecutive years at Canterbury Park, won titles at Lone Star Park and Oaklawn, and is the second all-time by wins at Remington Park.
Success in a Grade 1 race has eluded him, but Quinonez has 15 graded victories despite competing at tracks with limited chances to ride in those kind of races. His best success came aboard Pin Oak Stud's Alternation for trainer Donnie Von Hemel, winning the G2 Oaklawn Handicap, G3 Razorback Handicap, and G3 Pimlico Special Stakes in 2012. Most recently he won the G3 Whitmore Stakes with Bob's Edge in 2022 for trainer Larry Jones.
Quinonez told The Oklahoman his biggest race was one he didn't win, his first and only Kentucky Derby, when he rode Suddenbreakingnews to a fifth-place finish behind Nyquist in 2016, beaten a head and a nose for third.
“It is a goal that every jockey has, to ride in the Derby,” he said. “Then after you ride in one, you want to win one. I don't know if I will ever race there again, but at least I got there once.”
Quinonez, who became a U.S. citizen in 2001, has two brothers who rode: Alonso, currently competing at Tampa Bay Downs, and Belen, who is retired. He and his wife, Gedda, have two daughters, Lexie and Alayna Marie, and two sons, Nathan and Ryan.
He has no immediate plans to retire, telling Daily Racing Form's Mary Rampellini after his milestone victory: “As long as I feel good and am still healthy, we'll see what happens.”
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