Unless you are riding in the very best races for the best stables, it's not easy being a jockey in Great Britain. Prize money in the bread-and-butter races is dreadful and, even in these lower-level events, the competition for mounts can be fierce. Four years into her career, 22-year-old jockey Grace McEntee had had enough. In search of a better life, she booked a one-way ticket to Kentucky and will begin the next stage of her career Saturday at Turfway Park when she makes her U.S. debut.
“This is very exciting,” said McEntee, who will be joined in the Turfway riding colony by her boyfriend, Tyler Heard. “I have never been to the States before. It will be a completely new world for me and I just want to make the most of the opportunities. I've been riding over here for four years now and I feel I'm at the stage where I'm ready to go on and do something in America. The prize money and the opportunities at home are a lot more limited than they are in America. I'm young enough and in a position where I could move to America and try to take advantage of all the opportunities here.”
McEntee is the daughter of Newmarket trainer Phil McEntee and began riding in 2019. She was neither a star nor a bust, settling in somewhere near the middle of the pack when it came to British riders. She won 24 races in 2021 and 24 this year from 224 mounts.
“I'd get plenty of regular rides, but not in stakes races or in the bigger handicaps,” she said. “The jockeys are so good and so competitive there are very few opportunities at the higher levels. Everyone wants to use one of the top jockeys.”
McEntee's earnings this year were £153,958. She said that jockeys in the U.K. get 8 percent of their horse's earnings, making her 2022 paycheck from prize-money £12,316. That comes out to $14,864.
For McEntee, choosing Kentucky over other U.S. circuits was an easy choice. Not only is the purse money good but she has a number of relatives there who can help her out. Her first Turfway mount will be in Saturday's Gowell S., where she will ride Baytown Lovely (Fast Anna) for Paul McEntee, who is her uncle. Her brother, Jake, is an assistant to trainer Kenny McPeek. She has two other uncles working in Kentucky, one a bloodstock advisor, the other a farm manager.
McEntee was set to travel to Kentucky on Friday and to make her way to the Turfway backstretch Saturday morning to work horses and meet trainers. She has hired Jose Santos Jr. to be her agent. She should not have any trouble adjusting to Turfway's Tapeta surface as many of her winners in the U.K. have come over all-weather surfaces. McEntee said she doesn't know yet if she will stay here permanently and will decide after she sees how much business she gets.
The purse for the Gowell is $125,000 and Baytown Lovely is 20-1 in the morning line. She said she will have a mount on Sunday's card for trainer John Ortiz. The goal is to meet as many trainers as possible and to convince them to give her a chance. She doesn't have to ride in seven races a day. Thanks in large part to the revenue that comes in from Historical Horse Racing machines, maidens go for $70,000 at Turfway and the purse for allowance races is in the neighborhood of $75,000. There's plenty of money to go around. By way of comparison, McEntee's most recent winner came in a Dec. 29 race at Southwell and the purse was the equivalent of $9,000.
“It's pretty simple,” she said. “I can have a better life in the States.”
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