One of the first riders Corey Nakatani befriended when he joined the Southern California jockey colony as a teenaged apprentice in 1988 was Fernando Toro, who was beginning to contemplate retirement from a career that began in 1956 and saw him win riding championships in his native Chile and a multitude of big races in North America, including the inaugural Breeders' Cup Mile in 1984 aboard Royal Heroine.
So when Nakatani learned he was going to be inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame alongside his old friend Toro, he said he felt “very, very blessed to be going in with him … it was overdue.”
Toro wasn't the only present or future Hall of Famer Nakatani competed against in Southern California when he broke in. There was Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay, Chris McCarron, Eddie Delahoussaye, Sandy Hawley, Gary Stevens, and Alex Solis. And he more than held his own over the years, winning 3,909 races, 341 graded stakes (119 of them Grade 1), and 10 Breeders' Cup races.
In this week's Friday Show, Nakatani, 52, reflects back on his years in the saddle, including an unlikely story of how it all started, and on what being elected to the Hall of Fame means to him and to his family, including son Matt, who served as his agent at the end of his career.
Watch this week's episode of The Friday Show below:
The post The Friday Show Presented By The Jockey Club: Corey Nakatani’s Claim To The Hall Of Fame appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
