Medellin Rides Seven Winners at Zia

Alejandro Medellin sets day win record at Zia.

November 6, 2012

Jockey Alejandro Medellin rode seven winners at Zia Park on Monday, a record for the Hobbs, New Mexico, racetrack.  In nine mounts Medellin won the first seven races he rode followed by a second- and third-place finish.  His victories came in five Thoroughbred races and two Quarter Horse races.

“I am very happy,” Medellin said.  “Everything went perfectly -- good horses, good post positions, not many problems in the race.”

Medellin, 36, who has been riding in the United States for five years since moving from his hometown of Mexico City, is one of the few jockeys adept at both Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse races.

“It’s very different,” he said.  “[For Quarter Horses,] it’s about the start and speed and keeping the horses under control.  [For Thoroughbreds,] it’s more relaxed, and you use your head more.”

The record for most victories by a jockey on a single race card in the United States is nine wins by Eddie Castro at Calder Race Course in Florida in June 2005.  Medellin won Monday’s first race, a 330-yard Quarter Horse maiden race, with 3-2 favorite Blazin Mr Perry.  He did not ride the second or third races on the 11 race card.  In the fourth race he piloted Asian Brook, the longest shot at 15-1, to victory in a 400-yard Quarter Horse allowance race.

Then in Zia Park’s Thoroughbred contests Medellin used virtually the same tactics in winning the next five races.  He angled his horses wide around the far turn and flexed the “Medellin Muscle” with a powerful closing kick inside the final three-eighths of a mile.  Medellin won with 5-1 longshot Blastitary in the fifth race, a starter optional claiming contest at 1 mile.  He scored with 9-5 favorite Proud Spanky in the sixth, a one-mile maiden claiming contest.  Western Way, at odds of 6-1, won the seventh race, a 6 1/2-furlong allowance race for fillies and mares.  Medellin won the eighth race, a 6-furlong allowance for fillies and mares, with 2-1 second choice Blue Samurai.  And he scored his seventh victory in seven mounts in the ninth race, a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race for 2-year-olds, with 2-1 favorite Certification.
 
“Today was the day when everything fell out perfectly,” Medellin’s jockey agent, Rick Evans, said. “We’ve been on the verge of having a good day, and it seemed like today we drew good and all the horses were good.  He rode hard, and everything just got on a roll, and I think the confidence level seemed to get up.”

After riding the most victories in one day in his career on Monday, Medellin will be back at Zia Park at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday to work out horses and prepare to ride in six races.