Turfway's Leading Jockeys and Trainers

Fabio Arguello Jr. knew the ins and outs of race riding long before he began his career. His father, Fabio Arguello Sr., rode in Colombia and the United States for 25 years, ending his career in the 1980s. Arguello Jr. exercised horses for trainer Eddie Plesa Jr. at Calder for five years before deciding to build his own career as a jockey. He began his apprentice year in 1990, riding at Calder, Tampa Bay Downs, the New York tracks, and Turfway Park. He concentrates now on the Kentucky circuit.

Arguello was the leading rider for three consecutive fall meets at Turfway beginning in 1991 and that year set a record that stood until 2003 for most wins in a holiday meet. He was the leading rider at Churchill Downs in the spring of 1992, a year in which he won 12 stakes at eight different tracks, including the G1 Kentucky Oaks aboard Luv Me Luv Me Not. The filly also gave him his first stakes win, the 1991 Gowell at Turfway. Among Arguello's other memorable mounts is multiple G1 winner Hollywood Wildcat, 1993's champion three-year-old female. Altogether he counts six graded wins among his 34 stakes victories.

Riding accidents in December 1994 and January 1995 and the deaths of his father and grandfather in 1995 kept Arguello out of racing for almost three years. He returned to riding in 1997. Through mid-August 2010, he had more than 1,163 wins and purse earnings of more than $21.5 million.

Alejandro Contreras had ridden horses for fun as a youngster in his native Mexico but had no thoughts of a career in racing until he came to the United States in 2000 with his father, who was looking for work. His dad returned home shortly thereafter, but Contreras stayed and at 16 began working at the Thoroughbred Center in Lexington, first as a hotwalker and then as a groom. His career on the backside took him to the barns of Dale Romans, Steve Asmussen, and Greg Fox.

At the suggestion of a friend, Contreras started galloping in 2003, found he enjoyed it, and set his sights on being a jockey. He took out his jockey's license in August 2011 and had his first winner later that month. He finished third among riders for Turfway's 2011 fall meet as a seven-pound apprentice.

When Ben Creed finished atop the standings for Turfway's 2009 Holiday Meet, he earned the distinction of being the first graduate of the North American Racing Academy (NARA) to win a leading rider title at any track.

After graduating from high school, Creed knew he wanted to go to college but wasn't sure what he wanted to study. He worked in construction a couple of years and then signed on with UPS at the Louisville airport, starting a still-undefined college career at Jefferson County Community College through the UPS Earn and Learn program.

Creed had no background in racing and had never considered it as a career. Before entering the academy, his only experience with horses was riding Quarter Horses around his grandparents' Spencer County cattle farm. Given his stature, though, people often told him he should ride races, so one day in 2006 he decided to Google a new jockey school he'd vaguely heard was supposed to open in Lexington. The search turned up NARA, founded by Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron. Creed was accepted and graduated from NARA's two-year program in May 2009, a member of the academy's second graduating class.

Creed began riding at River Downs in late May 2009, landed a few mounts at Churchill Downs, and then went to Indiana Downs, where he won his first race. He moved on to Ellis Park that summer and to Turfway in the fall. He finished ninth among Turfway riders in the 2009 Fall Meet, won the Holiday Meet, and was fourth in the 2010 Winter/Spring Meet.

Through August 2010 Creed counted nearly 150 wins and $1.7 million in earnings. He has three stakes wins, the first coming in the 2009 Indiana Futurity at Hoosier Park and the next two, the Cincinnati Trophy and Wintergreen, coming at Turfway in early 2010.

The son of former jockey David McKee, John McKee grew up in Hamersville, Ohio, a hamlet east of Cincinnati. He began riding in 2002 at River Downs and finished the meet as leading rider, in the process breaking Steve Cauthen's 1976 track record for most wins by an apprentice. He next moved to Kentucky, where in the fall he was Turfway's leading rider and second among riders at Churchill Downs. McKee finished 2002 as a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the year's outstanding apprentice. In 2004 he added leading rider titles at Oaklawn and the Churchill Downs fall meet.

Returning to Turfway, McKee was leading rider for the 2007 Holiday Meet and on March 30, 2008, posted his 1,000th career win. Through mid-August 2010 he had 54 stakes victories and purse earnings of more than $30 million. He earned the first of his 11 graded stakes wins in the 2003 Firecracker Handicap (G2) at Churchill Downs.

Among standouts who won graded stakes with McKee in the irons are Greater Good (2004 Kentucky Cup Juvenile, 2004 Kentucky Jockey Club, and 2005 Rebel); Grand Reward (2005 Oaklawn Handicap); Lawyer Ron (2006 Risen Star, 2006 Rebel, and 2006 Arkansas Derby); and Lady Joanne (2006 Golden Rod).

Besides the 2004 Kentucky Cup Juvenile, McKee has nine other Turfway stakes wins: the 2004 Kentucky Cup Sprint and 2005 Kentucky Cup Juvenile Fillies; the Marfa in 2005 and 2006, the 2006 Holiday Inaugural, the 2009 Gowell, and the 2010 Likely Exchange, Battaglia Memorial, and Queen.

McKee was sidelined in May 2010 when he broke both bones in his lower left leg in a spill at Indiana Downs. He returned to race riding the last three days of the 2010 Ellis Park meet.

For Orlando Mojica, race riding is family business. His father, Rafael Mojica Sr., is a retired jockey, and his brother, Rafael Jr., rode the New York-New Jersey circuit before moving his tack to Kentucky. Orlando came to the United States in 2000, riding at Garden State Park. When he rode his first winner, half of a coupled entry, his brother was aboard the other half—-and came in second.

Mojica moved to the Kentucky circuit in March 2001 and finished second in Turfway's Fall Meet while still an apprentice. He earned his first stakes win and his first meet title, tying Sidney LeJeune, at Indiana Downs in 2003. He claimed the title outright at Hoosier Park that same year. Consistently successful throughout his career, Mojica won the Ellis Park title in 2007, Hoosier Park titles in 2007, 2008, and 2009, and the Indiana Downs title in 2008.

Through mid-August 2010, Mojica had more than 1,500 career victories and purse earnings of $21.6 million. In the preceding 12 months he earned nine stakes wins, bringing his total to 34. Among them are nine at Turfway, including the 2008 John Battaglia Memorial aboard Absolutely Cindy, the only filly ever to win that race, and the 2009 Bourbonette Oaks (G3) with Hot Cha Cha, the jockey's first graded win.

A 37-year veteran rider, Perry Ouzts earned his 5,000th career win on August 21, 2007, aboard Kandinsky at River Downs. Only 21 other jockeys in history had reached that milestone at the time, and the chance to join their elite company drew Ouzts back to racing after an on-track accident in January 2006 sidelined him for 11 months, the longest and most grueling interruption of his career. Ouzts's inspiring comeback was highlighted by the biggest win of his career, the 2007 Miller Lite Cradle Stakes at River Downs aboard Old Man Buck.

Ouzts earned his 5,500th career win on September 23, 2010, when he rode Holiday Tap to a neck victory in Turfway's eighth race. Through October 21, 2010, he ranked 18th among North America's all-time leading riders by wins with 5,532.

Ouzts grew up in Rivervale, Arkansas, riding horses with his cousin, Hall of Fame jockey Earlie Fires. He began his career at Beulah Park in 1973 and has been a consistent leader on the Ohio circuit ever since, holding a record 24 meet titles from River Downs and at least 11 at Beulah Park. Ouzts names the racemare Hy Carol as his favorite mount of all time; the two won nine stakes races together from 1976 to 1978. Another memorable win was the inaugural running of the Mike Rowland Memorial Handicap at Thistledown in 2004. The race is named for Ouzts's fellow jockey and long-time friend who died from injuries sustained during a race at Turfway in February 2004.

After finishing sixth among Turfway's riders in the 2007 Fall Meet, Ouzts sat out again for more surgery related to the 2006 accident. He returned to riding in April 2008 at River Downs. In 2009 and 2010 he won both of River's two summertime meets.

Marcelino Pedroza Jr. grew up around racing and dreamed from a young age of being a jockey. He had his picture taken in the winner's circle for the first time when he was just five months old. His father, retired jockey Marcelino Pedroza Sr., was aboard the winner. His uncle Martin Pedroza and his cousin Brian Pedroza are also both jockeys.

Marcelino Pedroza Jr. graduated from Panama's jockey school in 2009 and won his first race on Christmas Day that year at the age of 16. He came to the United States on September 20, 2010, and began working horses at Keeneland for Larry Demeritte and Wesley Ward. Ward gave him his first U.S. mount on October 8.

Pedroza moved his tack to Turfway and at the age of 17 won his first career riding title, taking the 2010 Holiday Meet with 21 wins.

Pedroza's momentum was interrupted twice in 2011. First, a gate accident at Turfway in late January left him with a hairline fracture of his right knee. After recovering at home in Panama, he returned to the U.S. in April to ride the final days of the Keeneland spring meet. Then he was sidelined again in June by a small fracture to his right tibia, sustained when a mount at Churchill stumbled out of the gate and dropped him to the track. He returned to ride at Ellis Park later that summer.

Tom Pompell got his first taste of riding growing up on the Illinois farm where his maternal grandfather, Gerald DeLong, worked for Lee Hooker as trainer and farm manager. "My grandfather had been a jockey and two of my uncles (Gary DeLong, later a trainer, and Terry DeLong) were jockeys, and they would throw me up on anything," said Pompell. "I didn't think about being a rider then. I was just a little kid, and I was a little scared of the horses." Pompell's father, Bobby, also was a jockey.

In the early 1990s Pompell moved to Kentucky to rub horses for Angel Montano Sr. at Ellis Park, and he set his sights on riding. On a visit home he spoke with trainer Eddie Essenpreis and agreed to groom for Essenpreis at Fairmount Park if the trainer would teach him to ride. Pompell spent a year riding at Essenpreis's farm and in 1996 started galloping at Fairmount. When Essenpreis learned Pompell had begun riding races at fairs, he offered to name him on horses. Pompell took out his license in September 1996 and won with his very first mount at a pari-mutuel track.

The next year Pompell was Hoosier Park's leading apprentice. He rode seven winners in one day at Fairmount, where he was leading rider in both 1998 and 2000. In 2001 he moved to Tampa Bay Downs and eventually rode first call for trainer Don Rice. When Rice retired in 2007, Pompell and his wife, Lesalene, a trainer, bought an Indiana farm convenient to the Indiana and Kentucky tracks. He was the leading rider at Hoosier in 2006 and at Turfway for the 2008 Holiday Meet.

Through mid-August 2010 Pompell had more than 2,000 wins and purse earnings of more than $21 million. Among his 36 stakes wins are six at Turfway: the 2008 Valdale, Cincinnati Trophy, and Queen and the 2010 Turfway Prevue, WEBN, and Dust Commander.

Rodney Prescott grew up around horses and as a youngster competed in barrel races, chariot races, and pole bending contests. After graduating from high school, he was introduced to racing when Quarter Horse rider Carter Rilie showed him around bush tracks in Illinois and helped him land his first job galloping horses.

Prescott first worked with Thoroughbreds at River Downs as a groom for the late Barbara Holbrook, for whom he rode his first mount and, a month later, his first winner. Prescott was leading apprentice at River Downs in 1994 and was honored with the Rodney Dickens Award, presented by the River Downs jockey colony to the rider who shows outstanding sportsmanship and ability during his first season.

Prescott has found consistent success in Ohio, Kentucky, and particularly in his native Indiana, where he has been leading rider twice at Indiana Downs and once at Hoosier Park. He has one leading rider title at Turfway, for the 2002 Holiday Meet, and was second among all North American jockeys by wins in 2005. Through mid-August 2010, Prescott had more than 2,680 wins, nearly $29 million in purse earnings, and 38 stakes wins, including Turfway's Wishing Well (2002 and 2010), Gowell (2005), Hansel (2005), Forego (2005 and 2009), Tejano Run (2007), Magic City Classic (2007), and Battaglia Memorial (2009).

Yuri Yaranga didn't grow up on the backside but he did grow up at the track—his father was a dedicated handicapper. At age 15 Yaranga enrolled in the jockey school at the Jockey Club of Peru and at 17 earned his apprentice license. He rode throughout South America for the next dozen years, including in Peru, Argentina, Brazil, and Venezuela, and scored an international win in Chile in 1987.

Yaranga hung up his tack in 1990 and trained horses in Peru for 10 years. In 2000 he began to work toward immigrating to the United States, and he started galloping horses to get back to riding weight and fitness. He came to the U.S. in 2003 at the invitation of trainer Jorge Gomez, and rode first at Gulfstream and Calder. He began traveling Midwest circuits in 2004. Yaranga holds leading rider titles at Fonner Park and Lincoln Race Course and was Beulah Park's leader in 2010.

Through mid-August 2010, Yaranga has more than 1,200 U.S. wins, including two stakes, and earnings of more than $6.8 million. He became an American citizen in April 2010.