American Pharoah’s morning man

BALTIMORE – American Pharoah likes to move at a brisk clip, and he certainly was eager on Thursday morning here at Pimlico, tugging hard at the reins during his daily gallop in preparation for the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. But he had a formidable opponent in exercise rider Jorge Alvarez, who has been entrusted with some of the best horses on the West Coast for more than a decade and reached the pinnacle of his career two weeks ago when American Pharoah won the Kentucky Derby.

“I got a little emotional,” Alvarez recalled Thursday. “I was crying.”

Alvarez, 39, started out as a jockey in his native Mexico but grew too big and had to give up race riding after just four years. But he continued on as an exercise rider, following his father, Jose Luis Alvarez, an exercise rider who exposed his son to the world that he, too, would embrace.

“He brought me to the track when he galloped at Caliente,” Alvarez said, referring to the now-closed track in Tijuana. “He’s proud of me now. I won the Derby.”

Alvarez had come close several times. For his current employer, trainer Bob Baffert, Alvarez galloped Bodemeister and Pioneerof the Nile, Derby runners-up who, like American Pharoah, were owned by Ahmed Zayat. Alvarez also was the exercise rider for Peace Rules, who finished second in the Derby for trainer Bobby Frankel.

“When we won the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Bayern,” Alvarez said, referring to yet another Baffert horse he regularly gallops, “I thought that was the best. But the Derby, I’ve never felt like that.”

Alvarez watched the Derby near the winner’s circle. He had walked over with American Pharoah from the stables, one of the many assignments he has long after his morning chores are done. On Thursday, he helped bring American Pharoah over to the paddock for a schooling session at Pimlico. Most days, Alvarez, who is single, helps out at the barn in the afternoons with whatever chores assistant trainer Jim Barnes has for him.

“When you work for guys like Baffert, you get on good horses, and it’s fun,” Alvarez said. “But it’s a lot of responsibility.”

After moving from Mexico to Southern California, Alvarez was an exercise rider for trainers Mike Mitchell and Jim Cassidy before moving on to Frankel. He worked for Frankel for nearly five years, galloping high-class runners like the mares Ginger Punch and Ventura, both Breeders’ Cup race winners. When Frankel died in 2009, “Baffert put in a claim for me,” Alvarez said, laughing.

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One of the first horses Alvarez got on for Baffert was the fleet sprinter Zensational. “I got along with him,” Alvarez said. “That’s what got me the job.”

He has since been assigned a series of top-class runners, many of whom, like American Pharoah, need a strong hand to guard against doing too much between workouts and races. Victor Espinoza rides American Pharoah in his races, Martin Garcia is up for his workouts, but no one gets on American Pharoah more than Alvarez, who takes him through his daily gallops. He knows the right balance to strike between letting American Pharoah get into a strong gallop while not overdoing it.

“If you grab him too much, he’s not very happy,” Alvarez said. “When you go to the track, he’s all business. He covers so much ground, you think you’re galloping slow, but he passes everybody because he’s so fast. He does things very easily.”

American Pharoah went to the track after the renovation break Thursday morning and slowly trotted the wrong way up around the far turn. But once he was turned around, he was keen to go.

“He put me to work today,” Alvarez said. “That’s a good sign.”