Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint-bound Tyler's Tribe helping to carry jockey Kylee Jordan to breakout season
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Even though she grew up in a racing family, Kylee Jordan didn’t grow up watching the major races on TV, dreaming of one day participating in the sport’s biggest events. In fact, she says she somewhat fell into her current career as a jockey.
“A couple of months before I started riding [races], I was working a ton of horses, and everything just sort of fell into place,” Jordan said. “I just went with it. I was going with the flow. But as a kid, I didn’t grow up being like, ‘Hey, I want to be a jockey.’ It just kind of happened.”
A lot has happened this year for Jordan, who turned 20 in April. She won her first riding title earlier this year at Will Rogers, piloted her first stakes winners, and lost her bug in September, shortly before wrapping up the riding title at Prairie Meadows. She proceeded to drive the nine hours from her home state of Iowa to Lexington, Ky., to ride at Keeneland for the first time and to begin serious preparation for her first Breeders’ Cup with Tyler’s Tribe, the undefeated Iowa-bred she will ride in the Juvenile Turf Sprint.
“I think it’s going to become real real on race day,” Jordan said.
Tyler’s Tribe’s connections all admit it hasn’t quite sunk in with their fairy-tale gelding.
“The other day, [Jordan] said ‘Somebody needs to pinch me,’ ” trainer and co-owner Tim Martin said. “I feel about the same way.”
Tyler’s Tribe has won his five starts, including four stakes, by a combined 59 3/4 lengths, all in dirt sprints at Prairie Meadows. The gelding is named for co-owner Tom Lepic’s grandson Tyler Juhl, who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2020. The 8-year-old Juhl recently rang the bell at the University of Iowa’s Stead Children’s Hospital, celebrating the end of his treatment and a good prognosis.
“I’m super grateful for this opportunity, and it just makes it so much better with the story behind Tyler,” Jordan said. “I’m happy to be a part of it.”
Jordan, from Fredericksburg, Iowa, is the daughter of trainer Todd Jordan, and she and her older sister Taelyn were always involved in the family business, developing a strong work ethic that has served well.
“Back home on the farm, when it was time to go do chores and the kids were little, we would all bundle up,” mother Christa recalled in an interview with Prairie Meadows communications. “Everybody had their job – your job’s hay, your job’s water – and they never batted an eye at it. . . . She rode horses long before she could walk.”
Jordan took out her license last year and rode her first winner in May 2021 at Will Rogers Downs. Last year, she rode 31 winners. This year, she has more than quadrupled that, to 132 winners through Oct. 27, while riding at Oaklawn, Will Rogers, Sam Houston, and Prairie Meadows.
Jordan also has piloted stakes winners Dicey and My Happiness this year, but it’s with Tyler’s Tribe that she’s become most well known. She began riding for Martin at Oaklawn, and early on he noticed her affinity for working with 2-year-olds.
“She’s really good on babies,” Martin said. “She’s calm and gets along with them real good. Even babies other riders have trouble with, she gets them to relax. . . . I matched her with [Tyler’s Tribe] early. This horse is pretty laid-back and calm, and she’s that way, too.”
Jordan has been aboard Tyler’s Tribe for all five starts. She also works him between races, and the two have gotten familiar with the Keeneland turf together in recent weeks, as Tyler’s Tribe will stay at a one-turn distance but try a new surface in the Breeders’ Cup.
“He just keeps getting stronger and stronger,” she said. “He’s really coming around now. He just keeps getting stronger, really.
“He’s fast and he feels fast, but he floats across the ground so nicely and hits the ground so nice. It doesn’t feel like we’re going very fast.”
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As Tyler’s Tribe kept winning in impressive fashion and the Breeders’ Cup became a possibility, there were questions as to if Jordan would keep the mount for the big race, given her inexperience at the level. But there was no question in Martin’s mind.
“She’s brought us here, too,” the trainer said. “And she’s a great rider. She’s patient, she doesn’t get excited. She knows [Tyler’s Tribe], and he knows her. I think that’s my best chance. A lot of new riders, they might get on and change a horse.”
Jordan is grateful for the loyalty.
“If they [had gone] for a more experienced jockey, I would understand,” she said, “but I’m just super grateful that they’ve stayed with me, and that I get to continue the journey with Tyler.”
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