Leyva's week filled with friends and memories

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Juan Leyva is a native of California, and the attraction of California brought him back there to begin the current chapter of his career, but it’s been old-home week for him these past few days at Gulfstream Park, where he is renewing acquaintances with those who knew him when he was a jockey on this circuit for 12 years.

Now the top assistant to trainer John Sadler, Leyva stood near the stalls of Accelerate and Catapult one morning earlier this week as seemingly every person who drove or walked past – including jockeys Edgar Prado and Chris Landeros – stopped to stay hello.

“I’ve got a lot of good friends here,” he said.

Leyva, 34, won 803 races during his riding career – including the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Musical Romance – before an opportunity to work for Sadler convinced him in June 2017 to both stop riding and return to California, where his riding career began in the winter of 2000-01.

“I wanted to go back to California and ride,” Leyva said. “I talked to John to see who was in the know, looking for an agent. John asked if I was sure I wanted to ride. He said, ‘I know you want to train. Come and work with me and when you’re ready go on your own.’ ”

That – and a similar offer from trainer David Fawkes in Florida – was the impetus Leyva said he needed to move on with his career.

“It was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to train, but I wanted to do it the right way,” Leyva said. “I wanted to work under someone I respected as a horseman, and John has always been that guy.”

He has similar respect for Fawkes.

“It was the pull of California, to go back home,” said Leyva, who grew up in Riverside, about 45 miles east of Santa Anita. “I always had a good connection with John. When Fawkes said what he did to me, that cemented it. When two people like that see something like that in you, you have to take notice and go for it.”

Returning to California has allowed Leyva to be around his parents and three brothers. He is married to the former jockey Kristi Chapman, and they have two children, a 5-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son.

“We have a tight-knit family,” Leyva said. “We try to get together every weekend now. And having kids, it’s important for me that they are around their grandparents and uncles.”

Leyva has fond memories of South Florida. He first came here at age 21.

“This is where I grew up,” he said. “I was just a shy kid from Riverside. There’s tons of culture here. Florida has always been special for me. It did a lot for me.”

Now he’s back with Accelerate for the Pegasus and Catapult for the Pegasus Turf, hoping to make more great memories Saturday.