Journeyman jockey Miguel Mena was struck and killed as a pedestrian on Interstate 64 near Louisville the evening of Oct. 31, according to a tweet from Daily Racing Form's Marty McGee, who confirmed the information with Mena's close friend, trainer Al Stall, Jr.
Mena, 34, began riding in this country in 2003, posting his first victory at Gulfstream Park that September. According to his biography on the Keeneland website, Mena's father Jose was also a jockey, while his uncle was a trainer.
“I used to go to the race track all the time,” he said. “I was watching my dad ride and I wanted to do what he was doing. I got the idea in my head when I was a kid that I'm going to be a jockey.”
According to the Keeneland bio, Mena was grooming horses by the age of 11 and at 14, he started at the Jorge Bernardini Yori Jockey School in his native Peru, whose graduates also included Edgar Prado and Rafael Bejarano.
According to Equibase statistics, Mena rode the winners of 2,079 races, earning his first graded success aboard Go Between in the 2007 GII Fayette S. at Keeneland. His first Grade I winner came aboard Champagne d'Oro for Eric Guillot in the 2010 GI Test S. at Saratoga and he also won the 2011 GI Stephen Foster H. atop longshot Pool Play for Mark Casse. Mena's most productive year in the saddle was in 2012, when his mounts earned better than $6.2 million. Mena had two rides on Keeneland's closing day program Oct. 30.
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