Jockeys Vargas, Ocasio finding success after changing circuits
At tracks with year-round racing, jockeys can get pigeonholed and need to change circuits to find fresh opportunities. That certainly has been the case for Jorge Vargas Jr. and Luis Ocasio, who rode at Parx but are now finding success elsewhere.
Vargas, 23, rode at Parx from 2013 through 2017. He finished third in the standings in 2015, fourth in 2016, and sixth in 2017. When Trevor McCarthy moved to New York a year ago, Vargas teamed up with McCarthy’s longtime agent, Scott Silver, and began riding in Maryland full time.
The result is that Vargas had career highs in mounts (822), wins (144), and purse money earned ($5.45 million). Prior to 2018, he had 10 career stakes wins. Last year, he won 13.
Vargas was the leading rider at the Laurel Park winter meet, which ran from Jan. 1 to May 6, and finished in a four-way tie for second behind McCarthy, who has reunited with Silver, at the recently concluded Laurel fall meet.
Vargas was the winningest rider at Laurel and Pimlico last year with 110 wins, four more than Wes Hamilton, a finalist for the apprentice jockey Eclipse Award. Vargas is 8 for 16 in 2019 and won two races Saturday, including the $100,000 Fire Plug aboard Home Run Maker for trainer Jeremiah Englehart.
Between races on Saturday at Laurel, Vargas was honored alongside Claudio Gonzalez, who repeated as Maryland’s leading trainer in 2018.
“I feel blessed because this colony is strong, and to lead it is huge for me,” Vargas said. “I’d like to thank all the trainers and owners and my agent, Scott.”
While Vargas moved his base of operations down the I-95 corridor, Ocasio and agent Gersom Rodriguez have relocated to Golden Gate Fields in Northern California.
Ocasio, 21, won the Eclipse Award as North America’s leading apprentice rider in 2016, when he finished second in the Parx rider standings. He slipped to eighth on the Parx leaderboard in 2017 and had a tougher go of it last year.
He has been riding at Golden Gate since Thanksgiving.
“We’re branching out,” said Rodriguez, who has worked for riders on the East Coast since 2002. “I think Ocasio was getting overlooked at Parx. We got an offer to come here and ride for Jonathan Wong, and it’s been working out very good.”
Wong won the training title at all three Golden Gate meets in 2018. His stable is off to an 11-for-46 start and tops the standings at the meet that began Dec. 26.
On Sunday, Wong had six starters at Golden Gate. Ocasio went 3 for 3 for him.
Ocasio is 17 for 78 (22 percent) at Golden Gate. He and Wong have been clicking at a 29 percent clip, and Ocasio is tied for third in the rider standings.
