Brian Hernandez Jr. hits 2,000-win mark
NEW ORLEANS – Brian Hernandez Jr. rode his 2,000th winner Thursday at Fair Grounds when he booted home Afleet Roger in a low-level maiden-claiming race.
Hernandez entered the Fair Grounds racing week with 1,998 wins and won with his only mount on both Wednesday’s and Thursday’s card.
Among the fellow jockeys greeting Hernandez in the winner’s circle was his brother Colby, currently leading rider at the Fair Grounds meet. Hernandez’s father also was a journeyman jockey and his sister Courtney rode professionally.
Hernandez, a native of Lafayette, La., grew up on the back of a horse, first getting a leg up, he estimates, at age 2. He rode in the last of the Louisiana bush-track races as early as age 12 and became an apprentice at age 18. Hernandez, riding with the bug, rode 243 winners in 2004 and won an Eclipse award as North America’s leading apprentice jockey.
Hernandez and his longtime agent Frank Bernis keep a relatively low profile during the winter at Fair Grounds, accounting for his infrequent rides here this week. And Hernandez, a level-headed invdividual, downplayed his milestone victory.
“I didn’t even know I was getting close until my wife tweeted something about it last week,” he said. “It’s nice, but you come back out on the morning and try to get a few more.”