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‘Indescribable’: Rene Diaz Breaks Through With First Winner At Gulfstream

Apprentice jockey Rene Diaz broke through to notch his first career win Thursday at Gulfstream Park after guiding Jessica ($14) to a three-length victory in the afternoon's third race.

The 21-year-old jockey achieved the ever-important milestone in front-running fashion aboard the Michael Yates-trained 5-year-old mare, capturing a seven-furlong sprint for $12,500 filly and mare claimers.

“It feels amazing. It felt like the wire was getting further and further away from me,” Diaz said. “Thank God, my parents and everyone that supported me. I'm grateful for the connections, also — Mr. Yates, Shadybrook Farm. It's just amazing, an amazing feeling. Indescribable.”

Diaz, who grew up in South Florida and played high school soccer with fellow Gulfstream jockey Romero Maragh, worked his way up the ladder on the South Florida backstretches.

“I was just freelancing in the backstretch, working for everybody and helping everyone out. Picking up things little by little, learning little by little,” he said. “It's been a long three years of practicing until I decided this was my year to start. So much has happened due to the coronavirus. I'm just happy to be here and blessed.”

Diaz, who won his first race on his 18th career mount, expressed gratitude to the trainers who helped him realize his dream of becoming a jockey.

“I first started in the shedrow, shedrowing horses for [trainer] Aubrey Maragh. He gave me a huge chance. He was a big support. Also, [trainer] Monica McGoey was a big support. She's really the person that let me get my gate card and gave me a whole bunch of horses to breeze,” Diaz said. “Then I started expanding my horizons with [trainers] Joe Orseno, Happy Alter, and Louis Roussel, where I learned a lot.”

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Double Firsts: Trainer Sherry Rhea, Apprentice Albert Lopez Break Their Maidens At Oaklawn

Trainer Sherry Rhea recorded her first career victory in Sunday's seventh race at Oaklawn when My Little Tipsy ($15) broke his maiden under apprentice jockey Albert Lopez.

Rhea, who launched her career in 2020, had been 0 for 61 and was winless in 48 starts at this year's Oaklawn meeting, according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.

“There's no feeling like it in the world,” Rhea, 57, said Wednesday afternoon outside her Oaklawn barn. “I was so excited. They say there's a tradition here, you get a duck on the last day if you don't win a race. I'm like, 'I think they've got me lined up for a duck this year,' so I'm sure glad it happened.”

Rhea's milestone victory was a family affair since My Little Tipsy, a 3-year-old gelding, is a homebred for her father, retired trainer Stanley Roberts of Forrest City, Ark. Roberts was Oaklawn's second-leading trainer in 2002 and topped the owner's standings three consecutive years in Hot Springs (2002, 2003 and 2004) with his former business partner Rick Turman (Highway 1 Racing Stable).

Roberts, 79, now assists his daughter and saddled My Little Tipsy Sunday. Rhea saddled the gelding's older full-brother, My Little Tip, who, at 48-1, finished third in the same race for $20,000 Arkansas-bred maiden claimers. Roberts also bred My Little Tip, but the 4-year-old gelding is owned by his daughter.

A Forrest City native, Rhea has been around horses her entire life. She taught school for 34 years, including 28 in Forrest City, before retiring a couple of years ago to help her father. Rhea is a lifelong barrel racer and said she competed Tuesday in Bee Branch, Ark. Rhea also has a background in Quarter-Horses, adding she's leaning heavily on her father in her transition to Thoroughbreds.

“I'm new to this, very, very new to this,” Rhea said. “I've got a background with horses, so I've got horse sense. I'm just learning about the track.”

Roberts trained Quarter-Horses before successfully switching to Thoroughbreds approximately 30 years ago, amassing 957 victories between 1990 and 2020, according to Equibase. Roberts had been scaling back his racing operation in recent years and started his last horse April 19, 2020, at Oaklawn. Roberts has 193 career victories, including five stakes, in Hot Springs.

“He was my assistant trainer, but you know what that means,” Rhea said. “He is still very much involved. He does the entering. He still calls most all the shots. My dad will be turning 80 this summer and he's won over 900 races, so whatever he says goes. I can give a little input and I help and I do a lot. But, basically, he's still very much involved.”

Roberts owns a 97-acre farm in Forrest City, about 140 miles east of Hot Springs. Rhea lives on the breeding/training facility, which stood the now-deceased Mykindacandy (sire of My Little Tipsy and My Little Tip) and houses overflow that are not stabled at Oaklawn. After retiring from teaching, Rhea said it was the perfect time to help her father (haul horses, pick up broodmares, etc.) since he had been talking retirement for several years.

“I started this endeavor a couple of years ago just to spend time with my dad before he quit,” Rhea said. “I wanted to step in and spend time with him, day-to-day, not just show up every now and again. I wanted to spend time with him before he retired.”

Rhea said after the Oaklawn meeting ends Saturday, her horses will ship from her father's Forrest City farm to run at tracks like Prairie Meadows, Fairmount Park and Louisiana Downs.

“That's the rodeo in me,” Rhea said. “I don't mind the driving.”

My Little Tipsy represented the first United States victory for Lopez, according to Equibase. Lopez, who rides with a 10-pound allowance, had three victories last year in Puerto Rico.

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‘I Wanted To Cry A Little Bit’: Lindsey Hebert Celebrates First Winner At Oaklawn

The last name is Hebert, the home state is Louisiana and the profession is jockey.

Got to be Cajun, right? Wrong.

Lindsey Hebert grew up in Delhi, a town of about 3,000 in northeast Louisiana, 40 miles west of the Mississippi River. While Hebert, 23, doesn't hail from south Louisiana, specifically, the famed Acadiana region, she does now have something in common with some of its most notable riding products, including Hall of Famers Eddie Delahoussaye, Calvin Borel, Kent Desormeaux and Randy Romero. Hebert is a winner at Oaklawn.

Hebert recorded her first career victory in Friday's third race aboard Time Heist ($31.40) for trainer Ron Westermann in a 5 ½-furlong sprint for conditioned $12,500 claimers. It was the 12th career mount for Hebert – all this year at Oaklawn – according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization. Time Heist, under a steady hand ride from Hebert, was a front-running four-length winner.

“I was really tired,” Hebert, with a laugh, said following training hours Saturday morning at Oaklawn. “I wanted to cry a little bit. It was just really amazing. To think that I'd come that far and I'd finally made it. It was an amazing experience.”

Hebert (pronounced the Cajun French, “A-bear”) grew up around horses on her family's 21-acre agricultural farm, but her only real connection to the Thoroughbred industry was through OTTBs, beginning about a decade ago. Although Hebert said she first dreamed of becoming a jockey around the age of 9, she had never been to a racetrack or seen a Thoroughbred race until approximately four years ago.

“I got into some ex-racehorses,” Hebert said. “I got them off the track to re-train and I just fell in love with them. I was like, 'You know what?' I've always wanted to be a jockey and I want to do it.' I want to go. I want to do it.' ”

Jumpers and showing horses in 4-H competitions led Hebert to Oklahoma after a friend, a former groom, got the aspiring jockey a job on a farm there in 2017.

Hebert said she began at the bottom, hotwalking and grooming, primarily babies. Adjacent to the farm, Hebert said, was a small training center.

“I crossed the fence and I would go get on Quarter-Horses, like match-racing horses,” Hebert said. “I started galloping those and met my fiancée (Andres Cambray). He taught me how to gallop. About six months into that, he was like, 'Let's go to Churchill. Got family there. Let's go.' I was like, 'Let's go.' ”

Hebert said she couldn't find work at Churchill Downs, so she went to Indiana Grand and began transitioning to Thoroughbreds by ponying and galloping horses. Hebert said she began working as an exercise rider for trainer Karl Broberg, the country's perennial leader in victories, around 2019 at Fair Grounds.

After working for Broberg for approximately a year, Hebert spent another year galloping for trainer Greg Foley. Among the horses Hebert said she got on for Foley were Major Fed, who finished 10th in last year's Kentucky Derby, and Sconsin, fourth in the $1 million Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) Nov. 7 at Keeneland.

“It was an amazing experience,” Hebert said, referring to Foley. “Great people.”

Hebert reunited with Broberg for the 2021 Oaklawn meeting – Cambray is an exercise rider for 2020 Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox – and rode her first race March 4.

“I didn't come here thinking I was going to get my (jockey's) license,” Hebert said. “I just came here in hopes of just gaining more experience and I was working a bunch of horses. The starter just said, 'We approve you.' I was like, 'OK.' It was a lot easier than I thought. I didn't really plan on riding, so it was a really big surprise that I got approved. I was like, 'OK, well I'm going to take the opportunity and run with it.' I kind of did.”

Eight of Hebert's mounts have come for trainer C. Blaine Williams, including her first (Sattersfield). Time Heist was making his first start since Westermann claimed the gelding for $10,000 March 6. Hebert said she had been galloping horses, including Time Heist, for Westermann at a local farm.

“I had a really good feeling about him,” Hebert said. “He'd always gone across the board and we had been working really hard. He'd been doing awesome. That's what we were hoping.”

Hebert came right back in Friday's fourth race and finished third aboard the Broberg-trained Secret House after leading for most of the 1 1/16-mile claiming race.

“That was even better,” Hebert said. “It was an amazing experience. Really, really grateful for the opportunities I got yesterday. It was very exciting.”

The 5-1, 95-pound Hebert, who doesn't have an agent, said she hopes to soon join Cambray at Indiana Grand and continue her work in the afternoon.

“I'm in this for the long haul,” Hebert said. “I really want to try and do the best I can. I want to go as far as I can go as a jockey.”

Hebert is named on three horses next Friday at Oaklawn.

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Keith James Asmussen Gets First Career Win

Calling it “the greatest win we’ve ever had” a little more than 24 hours after saddling a Grade I winner at Saratoga, trainer Steve Asmussen watched as his son Keith James Asmussen earned his first career victory as a jockey, guiding Inis Gulaire (Bernardini) to a head success in the Sunday maiden special weight finale at Lone Star Park (video).

The 22-year-old had ridden 16 races prior to Sunday, with four runner-up efforts–including in his first career ride June 15–and three thirds among them.

“It’s a dream come true,” the jockey said. “You know Lone Star has been open for 24 years and…my earliest memories are of coming here, so to get a win here is just surreal.”

Following the family celebration, Asmussen’s fellow jockeys carried him to the nearby fountain for a dip, a Lone Star tradition to mark a rider’s first win.Courtesty

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