Paulick Report | Horse Racing Free Tips

‘Have A Dream And Keep Working’: The Mindset Of Top Jockey Joel Rosario

Joel Rosario is one of the country's most popular and successful jockeys at the moment. With 49 graded stakes wins and the highest earnings of any North American jockey in 2021 alone, it's easy to see why he was recently crowned America's Best Racing's Favorite Jockey for this past year.

Rosario, originally from the Dominican Republic, began his career as a professional jockey at the age of 14 after six months in jockey school. He moved to the United States in 2006 following four leading rider titles in the Dominican Republic. Since his move to the U.S. he has won 3,253 races, which includes 15 Breeders' Cup races, two Belmont Stakes, and one Kentucky Derby. His mounts have collected $264,331,327 in earnings, and he is a strong contender for the 2021 Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey.

Rosario went into detail on his life as a jockey, discussing the likes of everything from his most memorable mounts to his advice for aspiring jockeys.

Question: How did you get into horse racing?

Joel Rosario: “I got into horse racing through my brother. He took me to the jockey school in The Dominican Republic and that's how I got started.”

Q: What has it been like to have the mount on a horse like Knicks Go, who you've now guided to two Breeders' Cup wins?

J: “I'm just very thankful for the connections who gave me the opportunity to ride a horse like him. I'm thankful for everything. I'm thankful for the horse and everything he did as well.”

Q: You've had a great year of racing overall, but what is one moment from this year that sticks out to you the most?

J: “I have a lot of good moments with the year that I had, winning a lot of races and Grade 1s, but when you win the Breeders' Cup it's very special. I really appreciate all of the people who have given me an opportunity.”

Q: What has been the biggest career challenge that you've faced during your time as a jockey?

J: “I like what I do and I've been doing this all my life so I never have any challenges doing this. I just like to do it.”

Q: What is your favorite part about being a jockey?

J: “Being around the horses and the people. In racing you meet a lot of nice people and that is what makes me want to keep doing it.”

Q: I would assume that having a good mindset going into a race plays a big role in winning so how do you maintain a good mindset going into a race?

J: “I like to work out to stay strong. I have a routine that I do almost every day.”

Q: Who are some of your most memorable horses that you've ridden during your career?

J: “I have a lot of memorable horses, but you know Knicks Go is one of my favorites that I've ever ridden. Then there's Twirling Candy, Frosted, Orb, Animal Kingdom, Tonalist, and Uni. They mean a lot to me. They helped my career.”

Q: What is a piece of advice you would give to anyone trying to become a successful jockey?

J: “Work hard and stay disciplined. Just don't stop and keep doing it every day. Not even just for jockeys, but for anything in life if you want something, I think if you work hard for that you'll get it. Have a dream and keep working.”

Q: What jockey do you look up to the most?

J: “There are a lot of the older jockeys that give me good advice like Mike Smith and John Velazquez. Even some that aren't riding anymore have been very helpful to me, like Gary Stevens and Jerry Bailey and all those guys. I cannot say just one because they all have given me good advice.”

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Edgard Zayas On Injury Rehabilitation And Coming Back ‘Stronger Than Ever’

Horse racing is an incredibly dangerous sport to pursue as a professional athlete, and most jockeys can tell you a story or two about injuries that have forced them to watch from the sidelines until they were cleared to race. Multiple graded stakes-winning jockey Edgard Zayas is no exception, having sustained multiple injuries that have put him on the sidelines through the years.

The leading rider of Gulfstream Park's 2021 Fall Meet and Spring/Summer meet is a native of Puerto Rico as well as a former student of the Escuela Vocacional Hípica jockey school there. He moved to South Florida to pursue a career in racing in 2012. Over the span of his decade-long career, Zayas has won 1,930 races and $55,080,460 in earnings. He is currently recovering from shoulder surgery and is likely to not make another start until the spring.

Zayas discussed his stellar year of racing accomplishments, as well as his hopes for the future following rehabilitation from his current injury.

Question: How did you get into horse racing?

Edgard Zayas: “I used to live close to a racetrack in Puerto Rico. I used to go to that racetrack all the time with my grandfather and I really loved it. I was always into sports, but I got to a point where I was 14 or 15 years old and I was a little too small to play any sports so I decided that I really wanted to try to be a jockey. I was 17 years old when I decided to join the jockey school in Puerto Rico. It was amazing. I think they have a really good system. They teach us everything from treating a horse to riding a horse. It's awesome because at that point I had never really been involved with horses so I didn't know how to work with horses and groom them and all that. At the jockey school they teach you everything from grooming a horse and doing stalls to riding them.”

Q: How did it feel to have such a good year and bring home a leading rider title from Gulfstream after having two years in a row interfered with by injuries?

E: “It felt great. This year I was still kind of dealing with a little injury in my shoulder and I decided to get surgery because it was bugging me all year, but luckily I have support from big trainers down here in South Florida. I had a great year that would've carried on to the winter so it was a tough decision to do it [get shoulder surgery].”

Q: What does the rehabilitation process for your shoulder injury consist of?

E: “Right now I'm in a sling for four weeks. After that I'll start some therapies and whenever I get my motion and my muscles back I can start galloping horses in the morning again and then decide from there. I'm looking at probably three or four months.”

Q: Do the areas that you injured remain vulnerable to potential arthritis or re-injury now? If so, what kind of special care or precautions do you have to take now that you didn't before?

E: “Yeah absolutely. The more injuries I get, I have to take care of myself more. I'm young, but I'll start getting older little by little. There's things I like to do outside of horse racing like I used to play basketball and stuff like that, but those are things that I now have to compromise for horse racing. I have to concentrate on what I do to not get re-injured.”

Q: Did you find that having to take that much time off from racing had any impact on your mental health?

E: “Absolutely, and I've been doing really good every time I've gotten an injury, but it's really tough mentally. Hopefully I get a couple years of being healthy. That's all I can ask for.”

Q: Is it difficult to get momentum back with trainers after time away due to injuries?

E: “Luckily I've always got support when I come back and I'm able to get the ball rolling quick. Hopefully this time will be the same way. I'm going to try to come back stronger than ever, and finally I can ride confidently because this whole year I had that shoulder problem that was really bugging me. Hopefully when I come back I can come back one hundred percent and get the support and get the ball rolling for a better year.”

Q: Who is one other jockey that you look up to the most?

E: “Johnny V absolutely. Inside he's the best and outside he's the best.”

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What Did You Like? The Paulick Report’s Top Facebook Posts From 2021

It's been a strange year of racing, underscored by the Paulick Report's top 10 most-read stories of 2021 and our top 10 Instagram posts of the year.

In this New Year's Eve look-back at the year in horse racing, we show you our most-liked Facebook posts of 2021.

These social media posts run the gamut from tragedy to hope: the list includes the death of Kentucky Derby first-place finisher Medina Spirit, a one-handed teenager overcoming the odds as an exercise rider, and small-town horseman George Leonard's trip to the World Championships with a daughter of California Chrome.

We at the Paulick Report could not do the work we do without our readers and our advertisers. Thank you this holiday season (and always) for your support, and may 2022 be your best year yet!

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Rejected: Paulick Report Story Ideas That Didn’t Make The Cut

The Paulick Report staff recently gathered virtually for our annual planning meeting – a day-long brainstorming session about new content and website improvements that usually leaves each of us feeling like we're a bit more storm than brain by the end. The cleverest minds in business say there are no bad ideas, but there certainly are ideas that merit eventual rejection.

This year, for the first time, we are giving our readers a look at some of the rejected ideas for new series, along with the group consensus for turning down those ideas

(And yes, this is satire. We need to point this out at the get-go. See Idea 5.)

The Cricket Report: A monthly series reminding readers about all the court and commission cases that are open, but silent. Rejected because: Frankly, between the slew of old drug positives without rulings issued by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, the boatload of civil lawsuits involving Zayat Stables, more than two dozen federal defendants, and lots, lots more, we can't keep straight who did what, when, where, and whether they're on their first round of adjudication or appeal.

They'll Really License Anybody, Won't They?: A series of profiles on racing's repeat offenders, usually trainers who were suspended for a period of time and have now returned, or who were run out of a series of racetracks but welcomed by others. Inspiration drawn from the many, many emails we still get asking about our pal Marcus Vitali, who, yes, we're aware is saddling horses at Turf Paradise for a second winter season. Rejected because: 1) It's unfair to focus on trainers when there are plenty of repeat violations by jockeys; we just can't trace riders as well because in this, the year of our Lord 2022, there is still no centralized national database for rider infractions; and 2) The subjects might sue us.

Getting To Know Top Achievers: Profiles of the weekend's Grade 1-winning connections you've never met before, in their most triumphant of moments. Rejected because: You've met them all. Years ago now. Also, we'd eventually be running back-to-back accounts detailing Brad Cox's childhood spent in the shadow of the Twin Spires … again.

Armchair Jockey: We make readers who email us to complain about jockey rides hack my OTTB around at a trot for 10 minutes. Rejected because: 1) We can't be liable for any kind of physical damage that may (/will) befall horseplayers after 30 seconds of jogging a horse; and 2) It would be a skewed representation of your typical horseplayer – we only seem to get jockey complaints from bettors who have lost money on the race.

Sarcasm From Ray: Ray writes out his original and biting takes on the day's news to inject a bit of humor into the Paulick Report. Rejected because: We still get emails/tweets from people who did not realize that his column on drug testing in New York was intended as sarcasm. No joke – lots and lots of people missed what we thought was pretty obvious there.

New Website Widget Idea: A counter that lists the number of days since a source without any direct knowledge of the situation told us with great authority that another round of arrests and federal indictments were “imminent.” Rejected because: It'd be stuck at 0.

Well, I Guess We're Doing Ok Then: A monthly pair of screenshots showing Facebook comments which accuse us of two opposite kinds of journalistic bias. Inspired by (though certainly not limited to) our having been informed during the same week that our staff were both the biggest Baffert fan club and showed irrational hatred of him because we published news items covering important developments in his ongoing civil lawsuits. Rejected because: Holy crap, are we tired of having to write about Bob.

The Sponsor Spotlight: A weekly video series where we beg for advertising dollars from people and companies the Paulick Report is accused of being in the bag for. Rejected because: Lack of funding.

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