Jockey Castellano gets 6,000th career win
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SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Javier Castellano became the 18th jockey in the history of Thoroughbred racing to win 6,000 North American races on Wednesday. He reached the milestone after guiding Starship Lizzy to victory for trainer Michelle Nevin in the eighth and final race on Wednesday’s program at Saratoga.
Castellano’s milestone did not come without a little added drama. There was a steward’s inquiry after Starship Lizzy and third-place finisher All Bright bumped on two separate occasions during the final furlong of the New York-bred maiden claiming race. Following approximately a five-minute deliberation, the stewards allowed the original result to stand.
“It’s not easy, not even my 6,000th, I still had to sweat out the result,” Castellano said with a smile of relief following winner’s circle festivities to celebrate his accomplishment. “I believe I straightened my horse and I knew it wasn’t my fault, but you never know. You have to see it official first.”
Castellano, who turns 49 in October, won four consecutive Eclipse Awards for outstanding jockey from 2013 through 2016 and was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 2017. He readily recalled the first of his 6,000 winners, which came at Calder Racecourse on July 31, 1997, in a maiden special weight race aboard a horse named Phone Man.
“I was so happy when I won my first race in the United States,” said Castellano. “I remember calling my family back in Venezuela and was so excited because I could go back home and say I won at least one race in the U.S. I could not imagine back then I would win 6,000 races, all those Eclipse Awards, and become a Hall of Fame jockey.”
Castellano also admitted that there have been as many, if not a lot more, downs than ups throughout his career.
“It looks easy to win 6,000 races, but you have to ride 40,000 races to win 6,000, so you can imagine how many losers you have to go through, how many slumps and disappointments you have along the way,” Castellano said. “And I’m very fortunate to have so many supporters, my wife [Abby], my family, my children, my mom, my brothers – so many people who helped me because, mentally, this can be a really, really tough game.”
Although Castellano has many highlights to choose from during his 30-year career, the first that came to mind was winning two legs of the Triple Crown with two different horses, the Kentucky Derby with Mage and the Belmont Stakes aboard Arcangelo, in 2023.
“To win two legs of the Triple Crown with two different horses in the same year, you need amazing luck,” Castellano admitted. “The same that it takes to win 12 Breeders’ Cup races and seven Travers. And I’m not done yet!”
Castellano was referring to the fact he will attempt to win his record-setting eighth Travers here Saturday aboard The Puma for Gustavo Delgado, who trained Mage to victory in the Derby three years earlier.
"Thank God I’ve been very lucky and fortunate to be strong, disciplined, dedicated, and hard-working, and it paid off," Castellano said.
