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Jockey Of The Week: Arnaldo Bocachica Dominates Charles Town Standings For Fourth Year In A Row

With the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town 2021 meet quickly coming to a close, Arnaldo Bocachica has again run away with the leading jockey title. Last week he added eight wins to his already lofty total to earn the title of Jockey of the Week for Dec. 6 through Dec. 12. The honor, which is voted on by a panel of racing experts, is for jockeys who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.

The hard-working, personable Bocachica, known as “Boca” at the track, has led the jockey standings at Charles Town in wins and purse earnings for the last three years and is poised to make it four years in a row with 252 wins, 150 more than his closest competitor and nearly $5 million in purse earnings through Dec. 12. His winning percentage is a lofty 35 percent. The Charles Town meet closes this Saturday, Dec. 18.

Riding since 2006, the 33-year-old native of Puerto Rico has made Charles Town his home track riding first call for leading trainer Jeff Ronco as well as other top trainers at the track. The Ronco/Bocachica pair post a 37 percent win rate, and Bocachica won career race 2,000 on March 6, 2021 for Jeff Ronco.

Bocachica began the week on Wednesday by winning two races for Jeff Ronco and one for trainer Anthony Farrior. With no wins on Thursday, Bocachica won three on Friday, one for Ronco and two for Farrior. He continued his winning ways on Saturday with a win for trainer Victor Espinosa and one for Farrior.

Bocachica's weekly statistics included eight wins from 15 starts for 53.3 percent winners and 80 percent in-the-money finishers with total purse earnings of $127,060.

Other nominees for Jockey of the Week were Dylan Davis who won the Garland of Roses at Aqueduct, Mario Gutierrez who pulled the upset win in the G2 Los Alamitos Futurity, Colby J. Hernandez who won the Champions Day Classic at Fair Grounds and Luis Saez who won the G3 Mr. Prospector at Gulfstream Park.

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Frost Speaks Out After Bullying Ban: ‘If I Allowed It To Happen I’d Be Going Back On Everything I Stand For’

Top female national hunt jockey Bryony Frost opened up to The Sun on Tuesday, speaking to the media for the first time since the British Horseracing Authority issued an 18-month ban to jockey Robbie Dunne for bullying and harassment.

Frost revealed the reasoning behind her decision to take the bullying matter to the BHA.

“In the end it came down to two things,” Frost told The Sun. “There was the point of I don't believe anyone should make anyone feel that way, that you're not worthy of being who you are.

“And the main one was I wouldn't be a decent human being if I one day saw someone go through what I did, knowing I could have done something to prevent it happening again.

“If I allowed it to happen I'd be going back on everything I stand for in my own rules of life, how you treat people. I didn't want to see anyone go through what I did.”

Over the course of the five-day hearing into Dunne's conduct, Frost's representative Louis Weston told the panel that Dunne had used “foul, sexually abusive and misogynistic language” toward Frost as well as threats to “cause her serious physical harm.”

Dunne's representative Roderick Moore argued that other female jockeys had not spoken out about malevolent behavior from Dunne.

Dunne gave testimony during the second week, arguing that when he said he would “put her through a wing,” he didn't mean it as a threat.

Reactions across the racing industry have been heavily mixed, and Frost hopes to find some sense of normalcy moving forward.

“I just want to enjoy my riding, I want to move forward. . . I just want to be me,” she told The Sun.

Jockey E. T. Baird Scores 2,500th Career Win At Hawthorne

On a windy Sunday afternoon at Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney, Ill., jockey E.T. Baird scored his 2,500th career riding victory. Baird won his 2,498th race on Saturday afternoon at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., as he rode Breeze Rider to the win in the My Charmer Stakes for trainer Steve Manley. Baird and Manley teamed up again on Sunday at Hawthorne, taking race five about Rodeo Man for win 2,499. The 2,500th victory was also for Manley as Dancin At Midnight scored in the sixth race from just off the pace.

Known for his excellent ability to get horses away from the gate, Baird began his riding career in 1985. Baird was Hawthorne's leading rider as an apprentice in 1986 as he won 171 races on the year. A winner of 17 graded stakes on his career, Baird is approaching 19,000 career mounts and this year surpassed $50 million in career earnings from those mounts. He was inducted into the Hawthorne Hall of Fame in 1998.

Hawthorne Race Course, Chicago's Hometown Track, races year-round in 2022. The winter harness season begins Friday, January 7, and races through Sunday, March 20. Spring thoroughbreds kick off Saturday, April 2, and conclude Saturday, June 25. The summer harness season begins on Thursday, June 30, and races through Sunday, September 11. Fall thoroughbreds return Friday, September 23, and race through Saturday, December 31.

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Madeline Rowland Honors Her Father’s Memory With First Career Victory

Each time Madeline Rowland has competed in her short career as a jockey, she has felt the presence of an angel on her shoulder.

Rowland, who turned 18 on Nov. 6, lost her father to cancer in 2012 at age 44. Primarily a steeplechase trainer, Paul Rowland conditioned such notables as multiple stakes winner Preemptive Strike, Suntara, Rainbows For Luck, Swimming River and Across The Sky.

“Every race I've ridden, before I leave the jockeys' room, I talk to my dad. Right before I leave the gate, I think to myself, keep the faith. Thank you. Because even though I don't have him here with me, at least I can count on him to look out for me,” Rowland said.

The youngster didn't need much help from outside forces in today's third race. Riding 4-year-old gelding Sancocho with the confidence of a grizzled veteran, rather than an apprentice with a 10-pound weight allowance making her ninth career start, Rowland moved Sancocho smartly to the lead in the stretch of the 7-furlong, $5,000 claiming race and rolled to a 3 ½-length score from runner-up Cliffy for the teen's first career victory.

Sancocho, who is owned and trained by Juan Arriagada, improved to 5-for-20 with the victory. He paid $10.60 to win. In another endearing twist to the story, Rowland and Sancocho were ponied to the starting gate by her boyfriend Nicolas Arriagada, Juan's son and a former jockey who earned his first career triumph aboard one of his dad's horses here on April 16.

Rowland's fellow jockeys did their part to make the occasion memorable, spraying her with a hose, dumping a couple of buckets of ice water on her head and smearing her with shaving cream on her return to the jockeys' quarters.

“Danny (Centeno) got me real good, and Skyler (Spanabel) was there with a hose waiting for me. I was like, I'm ready. I've been waiting for this.”

Juan was almost as far over the moon as “Maddie” after the race.

“I'm very happy for her. She's a good girl who deserves somebody to help her out, and I like to help young people who need support to keep pushing so they can do better,” he said. “She's been working for me the past couple of weeks and it's worked out well. There are a couple of things we have to fix, but everything went perfect today.”

Rowland, who grew up outside Fair Hill, Md., had ridden eight previous races at Delaware Park, Penn National and Laurel, with a second and a third. She said after today's victory that it felt at times like an out-of-body experience, as she reflected on the influence of her father, mom Jodi and others who have advanced her fledgling career.

“As I was crossing the wire, I thought that I hoped (owner-trainer Elizabeth) Merryman was watching me. She is like my racehorse mom – she taught me how to gallop racehorses,” Rowland said. “My own mom has been a huge support for me. At first when I wanted to do pony racing when I was 11 or 12, she tried to keep me away – 'No, do the show horses, don't go into racing' – but once she realized she couldn't keep me away she said 'Do it.'

“There are so many people I owe a lot to for me getting here. I thought about joining the military for a while because it would be great to serve my country that way, but now that I'm doing this, I can't imagine myself doing anything else,” she said.

“Breaking from the gate today, I already felt a smile on my face because I love doing it. Every race I've done, it's the same adrenaline whether I win or not.”

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