Agent Santos Jr. uses technology to create one-stop shopping

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. - A call to agent Jose Santos Jr. is one-stop shopping for a lot of trainers these days. He represents five riders at four different tracks, and all are notable journeymen.

Santos – the 26-year-old son of retired Hall of Fame rider Jose Santos – has a much larger roster of jockeys than most agents in a business plan that came together in the summer and fall of 2020.

“It was always in my mind to expand this, figure out a new way to do this with technology,” he said of agenting. “COVID sped it up and made it possible with the way things are, like the draw being on Zoom.”

Santos books mounts for David Cabrera and Ken Tohill at Oaklawn, Albin Jimenez at Turfway Park, Declan Carroll at Fair Grounds, and Reylu Gutierrez at Sam Houston.

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Santos is able to represent such a large number of riders because they are based in four different jurisdictions and he is not over the limit of riders an agent can represent in any one jurisdiction. Often, that number is a maximum of two journeymen and an apprentice.

“No rule really reads that you can’t have riders in other states,” he said.

The agent has set up shop in Hot Springs for the Oaklawn meet. He makes the rounds on the local backstretch, works the phones to cover other jurisdictions, then retreats to his home office for the draws via Zoom.

“I’ve got two laptops and my phone,” he said.

Oaklawn, like some other tracks during the pandemic, is accepting entries only via phone and is conducting its draws on Zoom.

Santos said he approaches his agent work as any other profession.

“I’m always on the computer,” he said. “I watch a lot of races. I’m always going over work tabs. Most people my age are working a 9-to-5 job behind the computer, and I feel like I’m treating this the same. I’m gathering as much information as humanly possible to try to find mounts for my riders.”

Cabrera is coming off the riding title at Remington Park's 2020 meet that ended in December and sits fourth in the standings at Oaklawn. Tohill is ninth in the standings at Oaklawn and approaching a career milestone of 4,000 wins.

Jimenez is a multiple-title winner at Turfway Park who recently finished second in the standings in the track’s Holiday Meet. Carroll saw action at the Breeders’ Cup last year, when he rode Empire of Gold to a fourth-place finish in the Sprint, and Gutierrez is second in the standings in his first-ever meet at Sam Houston.

Santos hit a few agenting milestones last year, including having one of his riders at the time, Miguel Mena, being aboard Necker Island in the Kentucky Derby. It marked the first time that a rider Santos Jr. represented rode in the classic, which his father won in 2003 aboard Funny Cide.

Santos began working as an agent at 16, booking mounts during summer vacation at Calder Race Course. He said he’s spent the past seven years doing this full time and loves his work – which is also fun for his father, who lives in Florida.

“He watches all the races,” Santos said. “He was staying up for Remington the whole time. He’s tuned in. He knows what’s going on.”

Much like the younger Santos.