Jockey Araujo turns shaky arrival into success

VANCOUVER, B.C. – When jockey Denis Araujo arrived at Hastings this spring, he was shocked to learn that the agent who had arranged for him to come to Vancouver from Uruguay had dropped him.

“I didn’t know anybody in Vancouver, and my agent, Wayne Snow, told me he couldn’t take me because he already had two riders,” Araujo said. “I didn’t know what was going on.”

Snow arranged for former rider Chad Hoverson to take over Araujo’s book, and the jockey has settled in nicely at Hastings. Going into the weekend, he was fifth in the standings with 13 wins from 75 mounts who had earned $166,586.

“Chad has been great to work with, and he’s a really nice guy,” Araujo said. “Because I arrived here late, he told me it was going to be slow. It has gone pretty well though.”

Araujo, 29, was hoping to come to Vancouver before the meet opened, but it took a while to get his work visa.

“In Uruguay, we don’t have a Canadian embassy, so I had to go to Argentina to apply,” he said. “It took a while to get it all worked out.”

He started his career at the bush tracks of Uruguay before riding at Hipodromo Nacional de Maronas in the capital city of Montevideo. That track is roughly 1 1/4 miles in circumference; it hasn’t taken Araujo long to adjust to riding a bullring.

“At home, you can let your horses settle more,” he said. “Here, you have to be aggressive in order to get them into a good position early.”

Araujo has mounts in all eight races at Hastings on Sunday. Post time for the first race is 1:50 p.m. Pacific.

Also making an impact in his first year riding at Hastings is Skyler White Shield. He has one more win than Araujo, and his mounts have earned $225,646.

White Shield was raised in South Dakota; his first win came at the North Dakota Horse Park in Fargo when he was 16. He has been a regular at Turf Paradise since the 2013-14 meet, and it was there that he made his connections with trainers from western Canada.

“Some of the trainers I met there convinced me go ride in Canada,” he said.

One of them was Greg Tracy, the leading trainer at Northlands Park. White Shield was just starting to get rolling at Northlands last year when he broke his arm.

“He’s a good kid, is aggressive, and can finish,” Tracy said. “He was winning a lot of races for me and was just starting to pick up a lot of other business when he got hurt.”

This year, his agent, Gord Rumble, convinced him to come to Vancouver.

“It’s been a good move,” White Shield said. “It’s a nice track, and the turns are a lot kinder than other bullrings I have ridden at.”