Olguin reaches his goal
Jockey Gerry Olguin turned 44 on Sunday, but the celebration really began when he rode two winners here that day to reach the 2,000-victory mark.
Olguin, who has made Woodbine his home base since 2000, will retire on Jan. 29. He had plenty of time to savor win No. 2,000, which came on favored Dumont in the ninth race. Dumont pulled away in the lane to a 3 1/2-length victory in the $12,500 maiden claimer.
“It felt so good,” said Olguin. “I’d been wanting to get it. It was a personal goal of mine.
“I could not find the winner’s circle the last week at Woodbine. All the riders there were rooting for me, and they even made a big sign for me.”
Golden Gate also had a sign, and the popular Olguin, who had ridden in Northern California briefly at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate Fields, was touched that all the riders came out of the jockeys’ room to congratulate him.
The win was special in another way because his father, Roger, booked the mount for him.
“It was something I was really happy about,” said Roger Olguin. “I found horses that won for him.”
Sunday was special all around for the Olguin family. Roger’s No. 1 rider, Abel Cedillo, had three winners here: The Natural in the first race, Clara’s Dream in the fifth, and Melanie Rose, who dead heated with Exactamente in the seventh.
Gerry Olguin decided to ride at Golden Gate for one month in hopes of reaching the 2,000-win level. He has three wins from 11 mounts heading into action this weekend.
He joked that he reached his goal sooner than he expected but will ride the rest of the month.
“I’m going to leave it to the young guys,” he said. “I love riding horses, but I’m not going to miss the steam room. It didn’t seem like work for many years, but it did the last couple.”
Olguin says he doesn’t have any plans yet for his post-racing career. He said he might exercise horses at Woodbine for a while.