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‘More Ups Than Downs’: Jockey Xavier Perez Nearing 1,000-Win Milestone

Maryland-based jockey Xavier Perez is closing in on his 1,000th career victory, not that the popular and personable rider needs a reminder.

“I've been counting,” Perez, 33, said. “I told my wife, 'Look I'm getting close. It's coming. It's coming.' She was like, 'Don't start thinking about it.' So I said, 'I'm superstitious and I'm going to count it because I've been counting since I had 50 left and it's been working out for me.”

According to Equibase statistics, the count stands at 995 wins with mounts in four of nine races when live action returns to historic Pimlico Race Course Friday to kick off a Memorial Day weekend program that includes a special holiday card Monday, May 31. Perez also had one mount in Delaware Park's 10th race finale Wednesday.

Perez would be the second jockey to reach 1,000 wins in Maryland this year, following Carol Cedeno Jan. 2 at Laurel Park. Perez and Cedeno grew up together in Puerto Rico and were classmates at the country's famed Escuela Vocacional Hipica, graduating in 2006 and beginning their professional careers in 2007.

“We are childhood friends. It meant a lot to me that she got that milestone, and now that I'm getting close to it I'm getting anxious. I just want to do it,” Perez said. “A thousand wins is a big milestone. It means a lot for every rider in the country and the world.”

Perez rode the winter and spring of 2007 in Puerto Rico before coming to the U.S. that summer, registering his first career winner aboard Danger Quest Aug. 25, 2007 at Charles Town, where another former classmate, Arnaldo Bocachica, had urged him to start.

“He is one of my best friends and he contacted me when I started riding. He told me he was talking to his agent and was telling him about me,” Perez said. “He said I didn't have to bring anything, just my tack. I had a place to stay and a fresh start. That meant a lot. I'm blessed that he's in my life. He's been an amazing brother and amazing friend to me.”

Represented by agent J.D. Brown, Perez rode 3 ½ years at Charles Town – winning the $500,000 West Virginia Breeders' Cup Classic in 2010 with 57-1 long shot Sea Rescue – before moving to Maryland at the start of 2011. That fall, he won a total of 32 races for 20 different trainers at Laurel with an average win mutuel of $14.75.

The first big horse of Perez's career was Susan Wantz's Dance to Bristol, trained by Ollie Figgins III. During the winter, spring and summer of 2013 they won seven consecutive races including the Skipat at Pimlico, Bed o'Roses (G3) at Belmont Park, and Honorable Miss (G2) and Ballerina (G1) at Saratoga – the jockey's first graded triumphs. They would end the year finishing sixth in the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Santa Anita.

Perez's most memorable ride came earlier that year, gaining national attention for a mid-April trip aboard Spicer Cub that saw the gelding blow Pimlico's far turn while on the lead, then bolt suddenly to the outside fence and around the parked starting gate before making a mad dash to the wire and finishing second by a nose. Perez lost both his irons in the process.

“That pushed me to have the campaign that I had. After Spicer Cub, a lot of trainers and owners were asking for me, and me and my agent were really busy. We were going to New York, Monmouth Park, Philadelphia, Colonial Downs, Charles Town. We were riding everywhere on the East Coast. It was a great year,” Perez said. “Still people talk about it. It makes me feel good. I got famous for something that was crazy. It was a jump start for me.”

Perez finished 2013 with 133 wins and $3.8 million in purse earnings, both of which remain career highs. He won his last graded-stakes with Bandbox in the 2014 General George (G3) at Laurel, and in recent years has been part of a formidable team with trainer John 'Jerry' Robb that has put him aboard multiple stakes winners Anna's Bandit and Street Lute as well as Anna's Bandit's 2-year-old half-sister, Bandits Warrior, a debut winner May 23 at Pimlico.

Street Lute has raced 10 times with seven wins, six in stakes, and Perez has been aboard for each of her last seven races including five of her stakes victories. Anna's Bandit owns 17 wins from 36 starts and Perez has accounted for 14 of her wins and 10 of her 11 stakes triumphs, riding in 30 of her last 31 races.

“Dance to Bristol was a special horse to me because it gave me my first graded races,” Perez said. “I didn't have the chance to get on her in the morning like I do with these three mares. I'm there at 5:30 in the morning with Jerry's horses. I take my time with Anna. I take my time with Street Lute. I take my time with Bandits Warrior, and it's paying off. It means so much to me to get the chance to ride such amazing animals.”

Perez had 58 wins in Maryland in a coronavirus pandemic-shortened 2020, 41 of them in 157 starts (26 percent) for Robb – the most of any jockey-trainer combination on the year – including Robb's 2,000th career victory with Stroll Smokin at Laurel. This year they are 19-for-63 (30 percent) together at Laurel and Pimlico.

“He's at the barn every morning, he's getting on them, he knows the horses. I think that means a lot, especially with young horses,” Robb said. “He gets on all the horses. He doesn't get on them all every day, but he gets on all of them at one time or another and he knows them. I think that plays a big role in it.”

Other top horses for Perez have included multiple stakes winners Sensible Lady and Talk Show Man and 2015 Maryland Million Distaff winner Lionhearted Lady. Perez's mounts have earned more than $25.6 million in purses.

“It would mean so much if I get to do it in Maryland, because the people in Maryland have been so great to me,” Perez said. “I have to say thanks to all the trainers that have supported me, riding me the 11 wonderful years I've been in Maryland. My agent has always been right there with me keeping me on the right path. He knows me well. Jerry and the whole team, they've been so amazing to me. They are like family to me. Me and my wife are so blessed and thankful to have such great people around us. I hope it stays like that for a while.”

Perez credits his wife, Jessica, for helping his maturity on and off the track. They met in 2009 when she was ponying the horse he was riding to the starting gate at Colonial Downs and have been together since.

“Thank God I have my wife beside me, 24-7. She's always supported me and she never lets me get too down when I have bad days,” Perez said. “It's been a great journey. There's been ups and downs, but there's been more ups than downs and I'm just grateful for that.”

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Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Giving Is The Most Selfish Thing We Do’

After nearly a year of his trips to the racetracks becoming few and far between, Alex Campbell Jr. wasn't going to let anything stop him from attending Preakness day at Pimlico. The nonagenarian had fallen at his home in Florida the night before, however, and was in the hospital past two o'clock in the morning with a head injury.

Doctors used staples to close the wound and cleared Campbell to fly to Baltimore, where the long-time Thoroughbred enthusiast was delighted to watch his homebred filly Mean Mary win the Grade 3 Gallorette Stakes by a half-length.

Thanks to vigilant efforts from Pimlico staff, Campbell even made his way to the winner's circle to congratulate jockey Luis Saez and trainer Graham Motion on the victory.

“It was the nicest thing in the world,” Campbell said. “The management of the track got me through traffic, got me good seats, and just couldn't have been nicer to me. It's good to know that there are still people like that in our business.”

He wouldn't bestow the same praise on himself, but the evidence couldn't be more clear: Campbell is also one of the good guys. Not only has he been breeding and owning racehorses for more than six decades, but he dedicates himself to supporting trainers with integrity.

“It's a tremendous sport and a tremendous challenge to do it properly,” Campbell explained. “I've been with Motion for five or six years, and he's the best trainer I've ever had, by far. I think he treats horses like they ought to be treated.

“I went out after him because I wanted him for a trainer; I thought he met all of the qualifications that I like, not only around the racetrack, but anywhere. He's a fine young man and he thinks right about most things. I don't know of a better living trainer today.”

Campbell also serves as a member of The Jockey Club, a position he credits the late “Dinny” Phipps with inspiring.

“Dinny Phipps did a wonderful job as president, and it operates as a business,” Campbell said. “For example, there was a girl who broke her neck and was frozen from the neck down for life. I called to see what they could do about getting something for her to get around in, and in about two days she had a brand new car that she could wheel her wheelchair into. It was so impressive not only because of the money it cost, but the performance on getting it there.

“They do that all over the country, and they've helped a lot of people over the years.”

Learn more about the Jockey Club's Safety Net Foundation in this story from our archives.

A native of Lexington, Ky., Campbell has also quietly become one of the city's greatest philanthropists. He launched the Triangle Foundation in 1980, and chaired the creation of Triangle Park in downtown Lexington. Over the years, the Triangle Foundation has completed a number of other projects in the city, including the Equestrian Park at Blue Grass Airport, Thoroughbred Park, and Woodland Skateboard Park.

Perhaps Campbell's most visible addition to Lexington is the statue of Secretariat located in the center of a traffic circle at the intersection of Alexandria Drive and Old Frankfort Pike.

“There are ten people on the executive committee of the Triangle Foundation, and I said, 'How about each one of you all say who you think is the greatest racehorse who ever lived,'” Campbell recalled. “Out of ten men, only three votes were for Secretariat. That was 50 years ago when he was running, so he just wasn't in these people's minds.

“You know that Secretariat holds the track record at the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness, and the Belmont, and those guys had no conception of that thought. I just thought we ought to do something about Secretariat.”

Secretariat and Ron Turcotte monument is unveiled at Keeneland

Washington sculptor Jocelyn Russell made the Secretariat statue in Oklahoma, and it was transported to Lexington. The 3,800-pound Secretariat, 21 feet long and over 11 feet high, was installed October 14, 2019.

“I have a funny saying, and fortunately all of my children have adopted it, that 'giving is the most selfish thing we do,'” Campbell said. “The reason for that is that the receiver always gets more than the giver. In proportion it means very little to you, when they come to thank you you get your investment back. My son has the job of putting my little saying on my tombstone. It's true, just think what you've done for somebody and how happy it makes you.”

In a similar vein, naming a successful racehorse for his longtime assistant Mary Venezie has been a thrill for Campbell, even though the name, Mean Mary, doesn't match her personality at all.

“She's the complete opposite of that, one of the sweetest, nicest, best people I know,” Campbell said, laughing. “She got a big kick out of it and she's enjoyed every minute of it.”

So has Campbell, from attending the races to visiting his band of broodmares at Gainesway Farm.

“Whenever I'm in Lexington, I'll go out there and look at the horses,” he said. “I could do nothing else if I didn't have other interests that I have to look after.”

From attending the races as a young boy and convincing older patrons to bet on his behalf, to owning his first racehorse with a couple partners at the age of 20, to celebrating last Saturday at Pimlico, Campbell remains exceptionally grateful to the horse industry for the friendships and passion it has brought to his life.

“What really holds you in the horse business is love of the horses,” he said. “And of course, talking to the trainers and going to the sales, and talking to all the people. It's a tremendous sport.”

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Pimlico: $708,857 Rainbow 6 Jackpot, $115,038 Late Pick 5 Carryover When Racing Resumes Friday

Live racing returns to Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md., on Friday, May 28, to kick off Memorial Day weekend with the Maryland state-record 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot carryover having swelled to $708,857.82 after going unsolved during Sunday's program.

Three of six horses were live to take down the jackpot heading into Sunday's ninth-race finale, won by Ran Char ($27.20). A total of $120,537 was bet into the popular multi-race wager, which began with a carryover of $670,306.25 from Saturday. Multiple tickets with all six winners were each worth $19,275.78.

The Rainbow 6 jackpot is paid out only when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 60 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners while 40 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.

Introduced in Maryland April 2, 2015 on opening day of Pimlico's spring meet, the Rainbow 6 had its previous state record carryover reach $345,898.33 spanning 31 racing programs before being solved by one lucky bettor for a life-changing $399,545.94 payout April 15, 2018 at Laurel Park. The winning ticket was purchased through Maine off-track betting.

Post time for the first of nine races Friday is 12:40 p.m. The Rainbow 6 spans Races 4-9 and includes the featured eighth race, an entry-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up sprinting six furlongs on the main track. Among the field are Palatial Times, most recently fifth in the Chick Lang (G3) May 15 at Pimlico; recent Pimlico allowance winners Heir Port and Cry No More; Exculpatory, a dramatic March 5 debut winner at Laurel Park that was fifth last out May 11 at Parx; and Subject to Change, a 4 ¾-length debut winner May 15 at Charles Town.

There will also be carryovers of $115,038.40 in the 50-cent Late Pick 5 (Races 5-9) and $5,876.76 in the $1 Super Hi-5 (Race 2). Tickets with four of five winners in Sunday's Late Pick 5 each returned $559.90.

In addition to Friday, Pimlico will also host live race cards Saturday, May 29 and Sunday, May 30 as well as a special Memorial Day holiday program Monday, May 31.

Bandits Warrior Honors Sister with Debut Triumph Sunday
Following in the family tradition of her 11-time stakes-winning older half-sister, Anna's Bandit, No Guts No Glory Farm's Maryland homebred Bandits Warrior sprinted to a decisive 2 ½-length debut victory Sunday at Pimlico.

Stable rider Xavier Perez was aboard for breeder, owner and trainer Jerry Robb as Bandits Warrior ($9.80) broke running from Post 4 in the 4 ½-furlong maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies. The winning time was 52.59 seconds over a fast main track.

“That's my baby right there. She was born on our farm, and we are so thrilled,” Robb's wife, Gina, said. “You can't be any happier. She's done everything right.”

By Mosler, Bandits Warrior was never threatened posting splits of 23.50 and 46.64 seconds. She put away Tessa P midway around the turn when the 6-5 favorite attempted to mount a challenge, then kept late-running Buy the Best at bay through the stretch.

“She's been breaking good out of the gate but she's never been asked to run in the morning,” Perez said. “Before the race, we wanted to keep her face clear. She's been doing everything good coming out of the gate in the morning. As soon as she popped out of the gate with her head in front I moved on her a little bit to get to the lead and by the three-eighths pole she took it.

“She started playing with her ears and when [Tessa P] came to her a little bit, I just let her open up a little bit and smooched at her,” he added. “What you saw inside the sixteenth pole when [Buy the Best] to make a run, she broke again and pulled away from her a little bit.”

Perez, also the regular rider for Anna's Bandit and fellow multiple stakes winner Street Lute, proudly patted the neck of Bandits Warrior three times as they approached the wire. It was the 995th career victory for Perez.

“She's got a long way to go to do what Anna has done, but she showed that she's got her bloodline,” Perez said. “I'm proud of her. I'm proud of all my kids. They're all my kids. I'm fortunate to be able to ride every day for Jerry in the morning and I'm blessed to be able to be in the winner's circle for him.”

Bandits Warrior is out of the No Armistice mare Onearmedbandit. West Virginia-bred Anna's Bandit, a 17-time winner of $782,655 in lifetime purses from 36 starts who is nearing her 7-year-old debut after more than 10 months away, also won in her unveiling – May 6, 2016 at Laurel Park – beating two of her stablemates in the process.

“She probably trains a little better than her sister,” Robb said of Bandits Warrior. “Her sister, when she won her first start, surprised everybody. I think we had three in the race, we bet on the other two and she won by [6 ¾]. She just never showed anything in the morning. This one, she showed good works in the morning.”

Buy the Best, among five first-time starters in the field of seven, was 4 ¾ lengths ahead of third-place finisher Cabra Chica. Mama G's Wish, another Robb-trained homebred, was fourth with Tessa P fifth.

“I think [Bandits Warrior is] a little better-looking filly than Anna was as a baby. When Anna got off the trailer as a baby I said, 'Put her back on.' True story,” Robb said. “She just didn't look the part, but she grew into it,” Robb said. “This filly does everything right. I wasn't sure how fit she was, but she ran big. And fast. So, we're happy.”

Notes: Five-pound apprentice Charlie Marquez doubled Sunday aboard Rockstar Girl ($7.60) in Race 1 and Dancing Til Dusk ($4.80) in Race 3 … Perpetrate ($100.80) edged Order for Porky to spring a 45-1 upset in Race 5, a 1 1/16-mile starter-optional claimer on the grass that marked the season debut of 2019 Maryland Million Turf winner Mr. d'Angelo. Unraced since finishing fourth in defense of his win last fall, Mr. d'Angelo got squeezed out of the gate and trailed the field early before making a belated run to be fourth … Robert D. Bone's Eastern Bay ($5.20), exiting a third in the April 24 Frank Y. Whiteley, swept to the lead at the top of the stretch and edged clear for a three-length victory over Whiskey and You in Race 8, a fourth-level optional claiming allowance for 3-year-olds and up. Winner of the Polynesian and second by a nose to Laki in the Frank J. De Francis Memorial Dash (G3) in 2020, Eastern Bay ran six furlongs in 1:10.78.

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Trainer Liz Merryman Has High Hopes for Homebred Filly

It's a rare feat to get to the winner's circle on one of the biggest weekends in racing with a horse bred, owned and trained by the same connection, but Elizabeth Merryman did just that when her speedy filly Caravel (Mizzen Mast) gave a gutsy performance at Pimlico to take The Very One S. by a nose on Preakness weekend.

Many would consider the juggling act between the foaling barn and the training center to be an impossibility, but Liz Merryman says for her, it's the best way to produce a racehorse.

“I love working with a horse that has no mystery to what happened before I got them,” she said. “You know everything about them, you know why they do what they do and it's really rewarding. It's my favorite way to train a horse.”

Did last Friday's victory mark Caravel as the most successful homebred Merryman has brought up?

“Definitely,” the Fair Hill-based trainer said.

And for the cherry on top, Merryman picked up Caravel's dam for free.

Zeezee Zoomzoom (Congrats), a $135,000 2-year-old purchase out of a dual stakes winner, broke her maiden on the Saratoga turf as a 3-year-old in 2015. After she dropped to the claiming ranks the next year, a bowed tendon ended her racing career.

A friend of Merryman's heard the filly was up for grabs.

“I was looking for another broodmare and my friend called me from Florida,” Merryman recalled. “She said the owners were just looking for a good home for her, either as a riding horse or a broodmare, but she told me she thought the filly would make me a nice broodmare. I looked her up and she had a weird page. There were very few horses on it, but the ones there could really run. All the way down, there were nice, strong broodmare types.”

So Merryman agreed to take the filly and shipped her from Florida to Kentucky, for a date with Juddmonte's Mizzen Mast, and then on to her farm in Pennsylvania.

“I never saw her until she was pregnant with Caravel,” Merryman noted with a laugh.

Zeezee Zoomzoom's first foal immediately showed promise.

“She was the only foal I had that year since my other mare wasn't in foal, so she was kind of raised as an only child,” Merryman said. “She always had a great personality and was really nice-looking and correct. I thought she was special from day one, I just didn't know she would be this special.”

A young Caravel taking a snooze. | Elizabeth Merryman

While Merryman said she will occasionally put a foal through a sale, she never considered it with Caravel.

“I really believe if you're going to make a mare, you should keep the first foal and campaign it yourself to make sure it gets every possible chance to prove itself and the family. She was also bred for the grass and she started cribbing early on. I thought she was a fantastic-looking baby, so I didn't want her to be discounted for being a cribbing turf horse.”

Merryman's hopes for the gray filly grew once she started putting in her first works at Fair Hill.

“One day I told her rider to kind of cruise through the lane and two-minute lick the last eighth to see how she goes. I clocked her at 11 flat and I thought, 'You know what? I think I have a runner.'”

Caravel broke her maiden on debut, going last to first over five furlongs of turf at Penn National. She then took an allowance at the same track before claiming her first stakes win in the Lady Erie S. at Presque Isle Downs.

At that point, the Pennsylvania-bred was getting some attention. After a third-place effort in the Hilltop S., Merryman put her in the Wanamaker's October Online Auction.

“I had a lot of people calling me and I thought I should probably cash in on her,” Merryman said. “I set her reserve at $350,000 and she didn't get to it. I wasn't very sorry. She won a stakes a week later.”

Caravel wrapped up her 3-year-old season with a win in the Malvern Rose S. back at Presque Isle Downs.

From the start of her campaign this year, Merryman was shooting to bring Caravel to Pimlico for The Very One S.

“I knew she was going to need a prep race, but everything kept getting backed up at Laurel and there was no allowance for her in New York really, so I thought I would run her in the License Fee S. and that would be a nice prep for her being three weeks out,” Merryman explained.

When bad weather pushed the race back a week, Merryman decided to keep her filly entered, planning to opt out of a trip to Pimlico on Preakness weekend two weeks later and instead wait until Monmouth opened.

But after Caravel's third-place finish in the License Fee, Merryman wavered in her decision.

“When she came out of that race, she seemed like she had really moved forward,” Merryman said. “She didn't come out tired or stiff and she was training happy, so I thought alright, maybe two weeks is going to be fine.”

Merryman grew more confident in the days leading up to the race.

“The week before, I was so confident in her, and I'm never confident,” she said. “I always second guess myself, but I'd never had a horse come into a race like such a monster.”

Caravel settled along the rail for the five-furlong contest and waited for a hole coming down the stretch. It seemed as though she would have no way to get up and would have to fight to get in the money, but in the final strides before the wire, she slipped through to surge forward and get the bob in a nail-biting three-way photo finish.

“I thought she had finished third when she crossed the wire,” her trainer admitted.

Merryman joins her homebred in the winner's circle for the Malvern Rose S. | Coady

For Merryman, who was born into a prominent racing family and has now passed on the trade to her children, the victory was cause for celebration.

“I had a lot of family there- both my kids, my husband, my sister and her family, and quite a few friends. It was really special and a lot of fun.”

Merryman reports that Caravel came out of the race with flying colors. She doesn't have any set plans for the filly's next start, but is considering options at Woodbine and Belmont.

Caravel's 3-year-old sister Tipsy Chatter (Bourbon Courage) is now in training with Merryman and looking to break her maiden, entered on May 26 at Delaware Park. Their dam also has a juvenile son of Great Notion named Witty, a yearling colt by Holy Boss, and was most recently bred back to Great Notion.

While Merryman admits that Caravel and her siblings are foaled out at another farm, they are back in her hands at three days old. Caravel has not left her owner's care since she first arrived at Merryman's Pennsylvania farm in the spring of 2017.

“We broke her ourselves,” she said. “She's been with us for everything. I love raising them. It's obviously a slow process. Everything goes wrong, there's always sleepless nights, but being able to work with a clean slate, with a horse you know everything about, there's no mystery.”

Merryman said she starts her day later than most at Fair Hill so she can care for her mares and foals before heading to the training center. It makes for hectic days, but it's a process that she has found serves her best.

“I just like to work with horses,” she said. “It's thrilling. A lot of people's lives are pretty mundane and boring. Mine certainly isn't. There's a lot of hard work and drudgery, but there's always something that's going to get your blood up.”

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