Riding regularly now at Santa Anita after being based mainly in New York since 1990, the native of Puerto Rico is well atop the jockey standings after three racing days, with nine wins from 17 mounts, leading in purse earnings as well with $653,900.

It's no surprise to those in the know, particularly his agent, Ron Anderson, whose savvy extends well beyond horse racing.

“He's without a doubt one of the greatest riders we've seen in a very, very long time,” said the 67-year-old Anderson, who became a world-class agent soon after he started in 1973, and also represents future Hall of Famer Joel Rosario.

Anderson's admiration of “Johnny V.,” as Velazquez is known to friends and fans alike, is understandable and deserved.

“John devotes considerable time as president of the Jockeys' Guild, which involves much more than meets the eye,” Anderson said. “Overall, he's in a league by himself, a great rider and a complete professional in every facet of his life.”

Anderson is reticent when it comes to beating the drums on his own behalf, but his record speaks for itself.

“I've won 38 Breeders' Cup races,” Anderson noted sans fanfare. “Nobody's even close.

“I've been doing this long enough that we've got it figured out,” he said, “but the bottom line is these guys make it easy for me, because I get opportunities to put them on good horses.”

He has represented a Who's Who of Hall of Fame jockeys in his nearly 49 years as an agent, namely Velazquez, Jerry Bailey, Garrett Gomez, Gary Stevens, Chris Antley and Kent Desormeaux, with Rosario waiting in the wings.

Ron Anderson may not own up to it, but you could say this: he's been Colonel Parker to all of those jocks.

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The Hall of Fame member and three-time Kentucky Derby winner who celebrates his 49^th birthday May 23 parted company last Saturday with Brian Beach after a historic eight-year run.

For more than three years, Beach's priority has been maintaining vigilance on his wife Lotta's recovery from an accident on a horse, which in part diminished his time representing Espinoza, who opted for a full-time on-track presence now that he's fully healthy and life is returning to a degree of normalcy with the pandemic on the wane.

“Victor came to me and I thought he would fit well with Abel (Cedillo, whom the agent also represents),” said Knust.

“They're both great riders who hope to pick up promising 2-year-olds and stakes horses. I spoke with Abel and he wasn't hesitant at all. He was fine with it so we decided to give it a try.”

The post Victor Espinoza Tabs Tom Knust As New Agent appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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A New York native, Bricks worked at Los Alamitos Race Course as a groom, exercise rider, jockey and then as one of the track's top trainers. His jockeys included leading riders Ramon Guce, who is also Los Alamitos' all-time leading Thoroughbred rider, Cesar De Alba, Eddie Garcia, Ramon Sanchez, Vinnie Bednar and many others. Highly competitive in the tough business of horse racing, Bricks was a fun, caring and loving person once the entries had been drawn and the races had been run.

“He was a jokester,” said his niece, Michelle Zuelzke. “He was very caring with all of us nieces and nephews and always tried to have a joke to make us smile. He had a good heart and loved his family a lot. He was always trying to get the family together. He was fun.”

Bricks arrived at Los Alamitos in the early 1970s, making his way to the famous Quarter Horse track with trainer James Brookfield.

“Neil would clean stalls and eventually started galloping horses,” said Scott Craigmyle, the director of racing and track stable superintendent at Los Alamitos. “He galloped horses for Wayne Charlton for a long time and then galloped horses for Blane Schvaneveldt. He even rode a few races as a jockey. As an agent, he was part of our team, part of the racing team. It's a big loss. Those agents help fill the races and we all have a common goal, to put together a good racing card. He won more Thoroughbred races as an agent than anyone in the history of Los Alamitos. Neil was part of our racing family. He was here every day, and we talked every night. He was around at Los Alamitos forever and he'll be sorely missed.”

The jockeys meant the world to Neil Bricks.

“Neil treated me like his younger brother and my family like it was his own family,” Guce said. “He treated my kids like he was their uncle. I'll always think of Neil in that way. He was family. He was also an excellent jockey, the best I've ever seen. I had injuries and missed time, but every time I came, he always put me on top again. That's not an easy thing to do. In 2017, I was out for a couple of years and when I came back he got me the mounts that took me back on top.”

Bricks had a long working relationship with former leading rider and now trainer Cesar De Alba, working with the rider during his time riding Thoroughbreds and then many of the top Quarter Horses in the sport.

“I loved Neil,” De Alba said. “We worked together for so many years. We got leading Thoroughbred jockey and leading Quarter Horse jockey. Neil had a good heart. At work, he was all business. One minute he would make me mad and the next he would make me laugh. Even after I retired, we stayed pretty close. I'm going to miss him.”

Charles Treece, the all-time leading Thoroughbred trainer at Los Alamitos, knew Neil Bricks well before he began his career as an agent.

“I was working for Curtis Perner and I was ponying horses during the races,” Treece said. “I remember Neil as a jockey. He would always ride this horse named Joe Moon Kitty. I would pony him to the gate and we got to know each other well. That was probably around 1975.

“Once I started training and he was an agent, I talked to him at 7 a.m. every day that we took entries,” Treece added. “He treated all his riders evenly and he wanted to ride winners. The thing about Neil is that worked hard on looking to ride the best horse in the race. I didn't always agree with him, but I understood that he wanted winners for his jockeys. I knew that he was riding who he thought would give his jockey the best chance to win the race. Away from the racetrack, he would come over the house for holidays and family parties for many years. He was always fun to be around. He loved The Beatles, baseball, and was the best checkers player I knew. He had a checkers board in the trunk of his car. He loved to play the game and would tell people how many moves they had left before he would win the game. He just liked having fun. I talked to him last night. I'm going to miss him.”

Information on services is pending.

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The Hall of Fame jockey and his agent of eight years went their separate ways Saturday morning after Espinoza informed Beach he is eager for more business which the 58-year-old agent, through no fault of his own, presently is limited in generating.

Through Saturday, Espinoza had only 37 mounts this meet, winning four races with five seconds and seven thirds, good for purse earnings of $365,844.

“It's tough; it's not easy,” said Espinoza, who turns 49 on May 23. “We had great success together and we were a good team. I missed a lot of time because of injuries and the pandemic, but now I'm healthy and want to win more races.”

Beach has been unable to beat the backstretch bushes on a regular basis to drum up business as most agents do since he primarily is focused on resolving health issues for his wife, Lotta, in Idaho, from where he has been commuting when possible.

Lotta has been coping with a multitude of lingering ailments stemming from a horse accident more than three years ago, in March of 2018.

“I understand Brian's situation but I'm back and my goal right now is to win as many races as I can,” Espinoza said.

Before the split, Espinoza and Beach enjoyed a wild ride.

A member of the Hall of Fame since 2017, Espinoza burst onto the international scene with Derby and Preakness winner War Emblem in 2002 and again with two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome seven years ago.  He then swept the Triple Crown on American Pharoah a year later, thus becoming a global celebrity appearing on “Dancing with the Stars” and “The Tonight Show,” with lucrative commercial offers his for the taking.

Among his honors are Santa Anita's George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, three ESPY's as best jockey and three Kentucky Derby victories.

Espinoza overcame a career-threatening neck injury during a workout spill at Del Mar on July 22, 2018 and miraculously resumed riding seven months later.

“Victor wants someone at the track every day and I've got family concerns that don't allow me to be there every day,” explained Beach, an agent since 1990. “I moved to Idaho in January to benefit my wife's health more than anything else.

“We already owned a place there (in a town called Worley, about an hour southeast of Coeur d'Alene), and I needed to provide an atmosphere that was more conducive to her recovery.

“I was traveling back and forth every week until the pandemic hit. That closed us down for a while and when we did open up, agents weren't allowed on the grounds and we were doing (post position) draws via conference calls.

“It wasn't planned that way but it was working out. Things began to loosen up over time, so now everybody's kind of back to normal but I still haven't been able to be there on a fulltime basis because I have family health concerns to worry about.

“Right now, Victor's business is not in great shape and he wants to see if it will improve if he's got an agent at the track in person every day.

“We've had a great eight years, and I think if he hadn't had the accident in 2018, we'd still be going strong. But that was so serious, and when he did come back, Santa Anita was shut down for a while, there was a lot of rain and it all prevented us from regaining our business.

“We were just getting going again last summer towards the end of the Big Meet at Santa Anita when the pandemic hit, so it's been kind of an unfortunate way to end it.

“But we've had tremendous success together. Winning the Triple Crown is as big as it gets in this game and something not many agents ever experience, plus two Kentucky Derby wins, a Dubai World Cup, a Breeders Cup Classic—the biggest races out there and we've won 'em all.

“It's been a great run.”

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Pegram has represented both Van Dyke and Hall of Famer Mike Smith, but California rules restrict an agent from having more than two riders.

Van Dyke told Daily Racing Form's Steve Andersen he's “been swamped with calls already” but added that he was going to take a few days to consider options, including relocating to another circuit.

The change will take place effective Feb. 26, according to the report.

Prat did not give a reason for the move, telling Andersen, “I felt like it was time to make a change.”

The 28-year-old Prat has won numerous Southern California riding titles while working with Lawson. He is currently fourth behind Juan Hernandez, Umberto Rispoli and Joel Rosario in the Santa Anita jockey standings, with 19 wins from 113 mounts, a 17% winning percentage. Van Dyke is 5-for-49.

Now in his seventh year riding full time in Southern California, Prat has compiled 987 victories from 4,921 mounts with his horses earning over $76 million. He won the 2019 Kentucky Derby aboard Country House via the disqualification of Maximum Security and has won three Breeders' Cup races.

Van Dyke, a 26-year-old native of Louisville, Ky., has been riding since 2013 and has 721 career wins from 4,530 starts for mount earnings of $45.5 million. Among his 18 Grade 1 victories is a win by Stormy Liberal in the 2018 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint.

Pegram has close ties to the Bob Baffert stable, with Smith getting many of the Hall of Fame trainer's top horses. Van Dyke has previously ridden a number of Baffert's top young prospects. Pegram is the nephew of longtime Baffert client Mike Pegram and the son of longtime agent Jim Pegram.

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“First, I want to thank God and (trainer) Craig Lewis who has helped me a lot, and my agent,” Centeno said immediately after the victory. “I'm happy. … Brickyard Ride is so special for me. I won two races in a row with him. I love this horse.”

Centeno is represented by 22-year-old agent Erick “Goldy” Arroyo. They have been together since last June.

“He works hard and he's a humble kid,” Arroyo said of Centeno, who attended Puerto Rico's celebrated jockey school, Escuela Vocacional Hipica, which has produced riding greats Angel Cordero Jr., Eddie Belmonte, John Velazquez and the Ortiz brothers, Irad Jr. and Jose, among others.

Arroyo was studying business at Pasadena City College before taking a respite to work as an agent. His long-range goal is to become a teacher.

As to how he got the nickname of Goldy, Arroyo explains, “When I was born my father thought my forehead shined like gold, and said, “That's it. From now on, you're Goldy.”

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Johnson, who was in his late 50s, had been plagued with health issues in recent months.

“It's a sad day. He is family to me,” said Parker, who said he and Johnson worked together for about 20 years, parting ways in 2017 when Parker moved his tack to Indiana. “He helped raise my kids. We'd spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together and hung out all the time.”

Parker recalls growing up in Cleveland and when he was 14 or 15 years old playing on the same softball team with his father, state steward Daryl Parker, and the Johnson brothers, Billy and Thoroughbred trainer Gary.

“I've known him for so long,” he said.

Parker said Johnson helped him win more than 30 riding titles at Mountaineer Park and they earned another together at Sam Houston in 2015 after testing the waters in Texas.

Johnson worked on the backstretch and eventually the racing office at Ohio racetracks. Fellow agent Jimmy McNerny worked alongside Johnson in the Beulah Park racing office and said Johnson left to become an agent in the mid-to-late '90s. McNerny followed him a couple of years later and now is agent for Parker, who won the 2020 Indiana Grand riding title.

“He's one of the best agents I've known,” said McNerny.

Parker led all North American riders with 377 wins in 2010 and 400 in 2011. After Parker left for Indiana, Johnson teamed up with Luis Quinones to win the 2018 and '19 Mountaineer titles and finish third and second by North American wins in those respective years.

Quinones was voted Santa Anita's George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award by his fellow riders in February 2020. “He was a big influence in helping Quinones getting that award,” McNerny said. ”Most of the riders who vote don't know anything about Mountaineer or Mahoning Valley, where Quinones rode. Billy really campaigned for him.”

When Quinones was sidelined by injury earlier this year, Johnson brought Luis Colon to the West Virginia track. Colon and Johnson's other rider, Charle Oliveros, are currently 1-2 in the standings.

“He did a great job,” Parker said. “And everybody liked Billy. He's just one of those guys. Never a bad word about him. Even if he spun the trainers, he would smooth it out so they weren't upset with him. He tried hard for everybody.”

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He asked my advice, and I had him contact Anna Ford at New Vocations, who said she would make room for him. It meant that he would lose money on the horse, and that he would be the one to fund a retirement from a career for which he was only briefly responsible, but he insisted upon doing the right thing, even though his trainer felt he could still run successfully. Blue Pigeon has now been adopted out as a hunter-jumper prospect, and he owes his future to his former owner, 23-year-old Philip Miller.

But when Miller went to Aqueduct last week to apply for a jockey’s agent’s license, he was told that not only was he unqualified, but that he was unqualified to even sit for the test to determine if he was qualified.

“Has he ever been in prison?” asked a friend of mine when she heard of the decision.

He has not.

In fact, Miller graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology at the top of his class with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance. Now an MBA candidate who earned his real estate license in his spare time this summer, he is the son of a prominent cancer specialist and racehorse owner, and has owned horses on his own or in partnership for two years. He grew up going to the racetrack, spends most days handicapping, and has won a bit of money on the ponies.

He has been known to bring home a stray dog or two, did seven years of weekly volunteer service at the Special Olympics as an assistant swim coach, is polite, intelligent, and well-spoken. He designed an app to provide free college tutoring to under-privileged students. Any industry would be happy to have him.

Except for horse racing.

Miller was offered the job as jockey agent for Ferrin Peterson, but has been deemed by the New York State Gaming Commission as unqualified because he has no hands-on horse experience on the backstretch. Let’s put aside for a moment that being a jockey’s agent requires no hands-on horse experience.

After her agent, Julie Krone, moved back to California, I suggested Miller as an option to Peterson, who had ridden a winner for Miller at Monmouth. I have known Miller for his entire life, knew he was looking to get into racing in a bigger way, and his father has helped out more racetrack families with care for their cancer-stricken loved ones than I can count. I should know. My family was the first.

She met with him, thought he was the perfect fit, and offered him the job.

But a rule on the New York Gaming Commission books reads that “a license to be a jockey’s agent may be initially issued only to an applicant who…has been licensed and has acted as an exercise person, apprentice jockey, jockey, assistant trainer or trainer in this or another jurisdiction for at least one year.”

So, without so much as looking at his resume and what he has accomplished at the age of 23, without discussing his two years of racehorse ownership, New York State Steward Braulio Baeza told him he wouldn’t even be allowed to sit for the test because he was unqualified.

He studied Multivariable Calculus and Business Law, made the Dean’s List every semester, and received a merit-based scholarship to attend the school.

But he’s unqualified to be a jockey’s agent?

There’s nothing wrong with taking the path from jockey or trainer to agent; Angel Cordero and Kiaran McLaughlin are two good examples of people who have succeeded at it. But to say that’s the only path defies reason.

The rule would eliminate the careers of almost any jockey agent you ever heard of-Harry Hacek, Vic Gilardi, Lenny Goodman, and more. The people who managed the careers of Steve Cauthen, Eddie Delahoussaye and Jorge Velasquez would have been deemed unfit at the start.

Ignore for a minute that the rule seems arbitrary, insular and protectionist, ensuring that the path of many bright young people trying to get into the sport will be blocked, and that only insiders can play. That’s not the best way to invite smart, passionate people into horse racing. (And for what it’s worth, the rule would disqualify the most talented racing secretary from being a jockey’s agent, which makes no sense.)

Shouldn’t consumers (trainers) and employers (jockeys) decide who succeeds at this job, not someone in charge of issuing occupational licenses?

How many times have we said we should bring new people into the sport? How many seminars have you attended on attracting young people? How many committees have we formed and organizations have we launched for just that purpose?

But instead of bringing his considerable intelligence, education, character and passion for the sport to horse racing, Miller will go on to work in another industry. He’ll do just fine.

I’m not so sure about us.

The post Horse Racing Wants New Blood. Or Does It? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Marquez, 17, who rides with a five-pound weight allowance, entered Saturday ranked third in wins (33) and starts (231) and fifth in purses earned ($944,681) at Laurel's extended summer meet. He had four mounts on Saturday's closing day program.

“There's nothing like Laurel. I love all the people. The environment's great, the horses are great. I just wanted to try something new in my career,” Marquez said. “I always wanted to go to New York. It's just another chapter of my life, so I want to see where that goes.”

Represented by agent Kevin Witte in Maryland, Marquez also finished third at Laurel's truncated winter meet with 24 wins and 132 mounts, and was fifth with $513,254 in purse earnings. He registered hat tricks March 8 and 15, the latter the final card before live racing was paused for 2 1/2 months in Maryland amid the coronavirus pandemic, returning May 30.

“I'm excited. I hope to do good. I have a very good agent up there,” Marquez said of his move. “Angel Cordero Jr.'s going to take my book. He's a great mentor, a good agent and has a lot of connections, so hopefully we can be a good team and work together to get some wins.”

After riding in seven amateur races in 2019, three at Laurel and four at Parx, with two seconds and two thirds, Marquez made his professional debut at age 16 running fourth on Up Hill Battle Jan. 1 at Laurel. The Columbia, Md., native got his first winner in his eighth career mount Jan. 9, also at Laurel, with Sierra Leona.

The son of Carlos Marquez Jr., a multiple graded-stakes winner of more than 3,150 career races currently riding in Puerto Rico, Marquez is also the grandson of Carlos Marquez Sr., another successful rider who taught at Puerto Rico's famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica jockey school.

Marquez registered seven two-win days during Laurel's summer meet. He joins forces with the 77-year-old with Cordero, a winner of 7,057 career races who previously represented Hall of Famer John Velazquez and currently handles the book of Manny Franco, regular rider of Florida Derby (G1), Belmont (G1) and Travers (G1) winner Tiz the Law.

“I can't really explain it. It's just an honor. I couldn't be more grateful. But I can't forget about all the people here that helped move me along and made me the rider that I am now where I think I can compete up in New York,” Marquez said. “I don't think there's anyone like Angel Cordero. He's a Hall of Fame rider and they call him the King of Saratoga. It's an opportunity I just had to take, and I'm very excited and looking forward to teaming up with him.”

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“When I see someone like that it reminds me of myself,” she said.

That mirror image was enough to prompt Krone, the retired Hall of Fame jockey, to return to the sport she loves after years watching from afar as a mom to her daughter, who is now 15.

Krone will be back at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J. – where she won riding titles from 1987-89 – when the 37-day meet begins on Friday, July 3, in a new role as the agent for Peterson, an apprentice trying to make inroads as a rider.

At 28, Peterson is much older than most jockeys trying to launch their careers. But she has a valid reason for that. She's a licensed veterinarian who completed medical school at the University of California-Davis in May of 2019. That was after excelling as a pole vaulter during her undergraduate college years at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

“Anyone who is changing their career path like this after going to medical school clearly has a passion that won't go away,” said Krone. “The drive is there to succeed as a jockey. That's what it takes. That's what impressed me so much and drew me to her.

Julie Krone

“She has a love for the sport that is infectious. She made me remember how much I love this.”

Peterson, who has spent the past few months galloping horses at Overbrook Farm in nearby Colts Neck in preparation for the Monmouth Park meet, met her future agent when Krone was doing a book signing in California. They hit it off immediately.

“Having a mentor like Julie Krone is a tremendous benefit for someone like me,” said Peterson. “She has done so much for the sport. I just try to be a sponge around her, learning whatever I can from her.”

Peterson began her career in January of 2019 at Golden Gate before trying the competitive Del Mar meet. Krone convinced her to come East this summer and to use Monmouth Park as her home base, with the added benefit of being able to ride at other tracks within easy driving distance during Monmouth Park's dark days.

“The goal is to ride to ride as many days as possible within reason,” said Peterson, who is also a certified acupuncturist. “That's one of the advantages of being on the East Coast and at Monmouth Park.”

Krone isn't sure that being a licensed veterinarian will be much of an advantage to Peterson right now – “It's not going to help you out there splitting horses,” she said – but she can see long-term benefits because of her familiarity with horses.

Peterson, though, says you can never have too much knowledge about dealing with horses.

“Working with horses on the ground helps when you are working with them on their backs,” she said. “Understanding horses, how they function anatomically, helps you think of how to balance on a horse. It helps knowing how their mind works and their behavior. The more you're around horses the better you get to know them. They're such intricate creatures.”

The 5-4, 108-pound Peterson does get some quizzical looks about her career shift, but says she would not have done it any other way.

“It's interesting becoming a jockey through becoming a veterinarian,” she said. “But I'm really glad it happened this way because it was the right order for me. I want to know as much as I can about horses. I am always wanting to learn more about them.

“I don't think I would be satisfied just being a jockey and clearly I wasn't satisfied just being a veterinarian either. So combining the two has been the perfect fit for what I am seeking in my life.”

Having Krone's star recognition doesn't hurt either when it comes to securing mounts.

“People know who she is right away,” said Peterson, who currently owns 15 career victories. “She has been good for the sport. Trainers are happy to hear from her. She has the credibility that people listen. And being mentored by her is an amazing opportunity.”

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