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The Friday Show Presented By Monmouth Park: Perry Ouzts. Ageless Wonder

Like much of what he's done throughout a riding career that began in 1973, the occasion of jockey Perry Wayne Ouzts' 52,000th mount on July 20 got scant attention. It was just another day in the office for the 67-year-old, who recorded three wins that same afternoon at Belterra Park in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Ouzts now sits at 7,200 career victories, sixth on the all-time list and first among active riders.

No one has followed Ouzts' career closer than John Engelhardt, a writer, photographer, host of the Winning Ponies podcast and former publicist at River Downs, the Cincinnati track where Arkansas native Ouzts rode for so many years. (Belterra racetrack and casino was built where the old River Downs was located.)

Engelhardt joins publisher Ray Paulick (a 67-year-old who will not be doing any horseback riding) and news editor Chelsea Hackbarth (who got to know Ouzts when she was working at defunct Beulah Park) to share stories and answer some questions about the riding legend who was the subject of the Hennegan Brothers' Eclipse Award-winning documentary, “Ironman Perry Ouzts,”

Ray and Chelsea also review last weekend's Connaught Cup and the winner, Avie's Flatter, who earned Woodbine Star of the Week honors.

Watch this week's show, presented by Monmouth Park, below:

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Derbe Glass Breaks Through With First Winner At Monmouth Park

As patient as Derbe Glass said she was trying to be as she waited for her first win as a professional jockey, she was starting to get a little anxious about when it would finally happen.

It did Friday night, on her 13^th career mount, as the 23-year-old split horses in mid-stretch to guide I See the Stars to a neck victory in the final race on Monmouth Park's six-race Friday twilight card in Oceanport, N.J.

“I'm just very happy,” she said. “It's a combination of exhilaration and relief.”

The Wilmington, Del, native, in her first full year of riding, had come close at the Monmouth meet with three seconds and two thirds from her first 12 mounts. This time she found a way to break through.

“The win was important but the key for me is to keep improving and to keep progressing,” she said. “That's how I kept from getting too frustrated, knowing that every ride I've had has been a learning experience.”

Glass rode in two amateur races in 2019, winning one at Parx, and had planned to continue riding on the amateur circuit last year until COVID-19 derailed those plans.

“So I came to Monmouth Park and started galloping horses and I fell in love with the place and the people here were great to me,” she said. “This year I just felt it was time (to ride professionally). I'd been galloping horses for five or six years. I felt like it was time to try. I picked up a good agent (Steve Worsley) and here we are.”

I See the Stars paid $11.20 to win.

Part of the “welcome party” that helped Derbe Glass make her first winner a memorable one

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Edwin Gonzalez Bags Five Winners Thursday At Gulfstream Park

Edwin Gonzalez continued to make his presence felt in the South Florida jockey colony, riding the winners of five races Thursday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

The native of Puerto Rico, who won at a better-than-30-percent clip the previous two years at Penn National, has ridden 33 winners at the Spring/Summer Meet since moving his tack to South Florida.

Gonzalez won aboard Laurel Canyon in Thursday's second race, K's Running Free in the third, Karen's Cove in the fourth, Vow Me Now in the fifth and Panarea in the eighth and final race on the program.

A multiple group stakes winner in his native Puerto Rico, where he won 443 races before coming to the U.S. in 2013, Gonzalez is closing in on 1,500 career wins. He ranked 14th overall in North American wins in 2020 with 177 and 11th in 2019 with 236.

“We've been north here the last two years and it's been good,” Gonzalez said at the start of the meet in explaining his decision to ride at Gulfstream. “But we only race two days a week and I'd like to ride at a better track with some better horses. I'm looking forward to riding here during the summer. I'll keep working hard to win some races.”

He is represented by agent Kevin Meyocks.

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Quinones, Parker To Receive 2020, ’21 George Woof Memorial Jockey Award On Sunday

In a dual ceremony that will honor a pair of distinguished jockeys, DeShawn Parker and Luis M. Quinones, Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, Calif., will officially honor both the 2020 and 2021 winners of racing's prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award on Sunday, May 16.

Instituted by Santa Anita in 1950 to honor the legacy of the legendary jockey George Woolf, the Woolf Award, which can only be won once, honors those riders whose careers embodied class and dignity and have thus represented Thoroughbred horse racing in a consistently professional manner.

Currently based in Ohio, Quinones, America's second leading rider by races won in 2019 with 314 victories, was originally scheduled to accept the 2020 Woolf Trophy on March 22 of last year, but due to complications related to the COVID-19 virus, he will instead participate in a Runhappy Winner's Circle ceremony between races with his close personal friend and 2021 Woolf Award winner DeShawn Parker this Sunday.

Quinones, 42, outpolled a highly respected group of finalists last year that included Tyler Baze, Javier Castellano, Chris Emigh and James Graham.

“It's a great honor just to be on the ballot for this award,” said Quinones last spring. “Winning the Woolf Award is incredible. I'm looking forward to coming out there and I know this is something I will never forget.”

DeShawn Parker, who at five feet, 10 inches, “stands out” in any jockey colony, became the first African-American rider since 1895 to lead all American jockeys in races won in 2010, with 377 trips to the Winner's Circle and he becomes the 72^nd Woolf Award winner, dating back to Gordon Glisson in 1950.

In 2011, he upped that total to 400 wins, and was again the nation's leading jockey by races won. A Cincinnati, Ohio native, Parker, 50, was a dominant force at Mountaineer Park in West Virginia for more than 20 years and he has also enjoyed much success at Indiana Grand, as he led all riders there in 2020, and at Sam Houston Race Park, where he was their leading rider in 2015.

Fast closing in on 6,000 career wins, Parker is the son of longtime highly respected Ohio racing steward, Daryl Parker, who passed away in Cincinnati on March 4.

“My idol, my best friend and a great father!” Parker tweeted on March 5. “He meant so much to my life and my career. I can only hope to be as great as he was…”

Parker, who outpolled fellow jockeys Alex Birzer, Jorge Martin Bourdieu, Kendrick Carmouche and Aaron Gryder to win this year's Woolf Award, and Quinones, will be accompanied on Sunday by their wives, children and close friends.

Billy Johnson, who died last December, was agent for both Parker and Quinones during the years they were at or near the top of the national standings by wins.

The exact timing of Sunday's event will be determined following entries on Thursday.

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