Cancel starts journeyman phase of riding career

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Eric Cancel, the runner-up in the voting for an Eclipse Award as leading apprentice jockey in 2015, will start life as a journeyman Thursday.

Cancel, 19, has won 125 races from 1,090 mounts since starting his career at Gulfstream Park last March. Cancel moved his tack to New York four weeks later and has never left. He led all apprentice riders in purse money won in 2015 with $5.3 million but finished second in the voting to Tyler Gaffalione.

Cancel has ridden 28 winners at the Aqueduct inner-track meet, good for sixth in the standings. He has five mounts Thursday and four on Friday.

“I know it’s going to be a little tougher, but nothing’s going to stop me from trying to keep on doing what I’m doing,” Cancel said Monday. “I had a really good year as an apprentice. I expect to have a really good year as a journeyman.”