Carmouche still aches for fallen friend Flores

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – It’s impossible not see to see the emotion in Kendrick Carmouche’s eyes when he talks about his friend Jose Luis Flores, the jockey who died last month as the result of injuries sustained in a spill at Parx.

Flores was one of the first people Carmouche met when he left Louisiana to begin riding at Parx several years ago. Two weeks before Flores died, Carmouche was at Parx and the two were in the jockeys’ room when Flores told him that once he reached 5,000 career wins he was going to retire. Flores had 4,650 wins.

Carmouche said he if he could, he would transfer 350 of his 3,047 career wins to Flores’s total.

“It’s something I wanted to do for him because we talked about it two weeks before,” Carmouche, his eyes welling up, said this week. “I know it probably couldn’t happen. … I wanted to do it not only for him but his family, too. That’s what he was waiting to do.”

Carmouche, 34, said he still thinks about Flores when he rides.

“Even when I’m going around there sometimes he pops in my mind,” said Carmouche, who won three of Friday’s first four races at Aqueduct. “It’s very sad that you can lose somebody that close to you in the industry. You just wish you could rewind and bring him back. He was such a good guy, he was a clean rider, never messed with anybody. It’s a very bad loss for me and I’m sure a lot of other people.”

Carmouche said that despite the dangers of his profession, he has no plans to stop riding. But, he is appreciative for every time he comes back safely after a race.

“You got to be really safe with your life and love yourself,” Carmouche said. “I tell all jockeys you got to love yourself. I love myself when I’m on the horse and I want that horse to love me. I want him to make it around there safely every race. Every time I pull up a horse at the end of a race I pet him and I say ‘thank you.’”