'Jockey Joe' earns his 1,000th career victory

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The horses were loading into the gate for the final race Thursday, with Joe Johnson aboard favored Silver Antelope and shooting for his 1,000th victory. Little did he know he had to overcome a jinx to reach his milestone.

John Asher, vice president of racing communications for Churchill Downs, was watching the race in the press box, already holding signage that congratulated Johnson on his 1,000th win – which is the bad-karma equivalent to an owner watching a race from the winner’s circle.

In the end, no jinx could stop Johnson and Silver Antelope. Riding for his longtime backer, trainer Gary Hartlage, Johnson sent his mount after the leaders coming into the lane, and after a long stretch drive with Pure Luxury, they gradually pulled ahead for a half-length victory.

Before the obligatory photos were taken commemorating his accomplishment in the winner’s circle, Johnson and Silver Antelope were treated to a chorus of cheers from family and friends, who were apparently as confident as Asher in victory. They packed the winner’s circle and applauded the rider known as “Jockey Joe.”

Jockeys Calvin Borel, Corey Lanerie, and Rodney Prescott joined him in the winner’s circle photo – after a celebratory water soaking that Borel gave Johnson after the race.

“My special thanks goes out to Mr. Hartlage for putting me on a lot of live horses and the other people that I’ve ridden and won for,” Johnson said shortly afterward.

Johnson, 46, the younger brother of jockey Pat Johnson, said his first victory also came for Hartlage in 1989, and in the 25 years since that victory, the two have remained a team, whether the race has been with a cheap claimer or in a high-level stakes race.

“We’ve been together 20-some years, a lot longer than a lot of marriages make it,” Johnson said.

Their current “big horse” is On Fire Baby, recent winner of the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes at Churchill on Oaks day, but the duo also notably teamed to win seven stakes wins with Judge T C and also the 2007 Fantasy at Oaklawn with High Heels.

Riding one jockey, one who will get to know each horse in a stable, is how Hartlage likes to train horses, an old-school practice not as much in vogue today as it was decades ago. He said his owners know this from the start, or he advises them to seek out another trainer.

“They could call and ask me to train the Derby winner, and I’d tell them Joe is going to ride him,” he said.

Johnson is enjoying his finest meet at Churchill Downs since he won 11 races during the spring meet in 1995. He entered Friday’s card at Churchill 10 for 47, placing him in a tie for seventh in the standings. Six of those winners came for Hartlage, three for trainer “Jinks” Fires, and one for trainer Dan Peitz.

** Sunday’s modest eight-race card is led by one allowance, the eighth, a $52,000 entry-level race at 6 1/2 furlongs in which first-out winners Tiz May West and Swept Up are the favorites. Although both appear talented, the latter likely holds a fitness edge, with the former returning from a layoff of nearly a year.

Swept Up proved a game winner under Lanerie in the slop May 10 at Churchill. Steve Margolis trains.