Not yet 30 – but riding since age 12 – with a face that could pass as a teenager and a 9 to 5 smile, five foot, 113 pound Paco Lopez is becoming an elite jockey on the racing circuit and hard to beat at Monmouth Park, the Two River Times reports.
In his eight years riding thoroughbreds, Lopez has had nearly 9,000 starts, winning 1,600 races with his horses earning $51 million. A multiple graded stakes race winning rider, Lopez was the 2008 Eclipse winner as the top apprentice jockey.
Racing primarily at Gulfstream in Florida during the winter and Monmouth Park during the summer, Lopez won Monmouth’s riding title in 2013 with 99 wins and in 2014 with a record 120 wins.
How did Paco get his big break?
His agent, Cory Moran explained: “I have to give a special thanks to trainer Bill White who was training horses at Calder at the time. Paco was riding quarter horses and galloping thoroughbreds in Florida in 2007 when Bill called me to meet Paco at his barn. He had me watch a race replay of Lopez outwitting his journeyman jockey. White told me that Lopez really was not an apprentice rider at all but had the skills of any journeyman rider. I totally agreed and partnered with Paco immediately” Moran added. “And the rest is history.”
Read the complete story on Paco Lopez here: http://trtnj.com/paco-lopez-a-young-rider-who-only-gets-better/
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