Espinoza, Victor

Victor Espinoza, (born May 23, 1972, Tulancingo, Hidalgo, Mexico), Mexican-born jockey who in 2015 became the oldest jockey to win American Thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown, riding American Pharoah.

Espinoza grew up on a farm northeast of Mexico City and worked as a bus driver while he took riding lessons and attended jockey school. His first victory came in 1992 at Mexico City’s Hippodromo de las Americas. The following year he moved to northern California, where he was a leading apprentice jockey at Bay Meadows Racetrack in San Mateo and Golden Gate Fields in Berkeley. He then moved to Los Angeles. Espinoza first gained national attention in 2000, when he rode 55–1 long shot Spain to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (for fillies and mares) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky (the site of the Kentucky Derby).

The 5-foot 2-inch (1.58-metre) Espinoza appeared in his first Kentucky Derby in 2001, when he was retained by trainer Bob Baffert to ride Congaree. However, after Congaree finished third—despite having set a Kentucky Derby record for the fastest opening mile—Baffert took the jockey off the saddle because he was unhappy with the way that Espinoza had handled the horse. Espinoza’s first try at the Triple Crown—winning the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes in a single season—came in 2002 aboard Baffert-trained War Emblem. However, the horse stumbled out of the gate in the Belmont and could manage only an eighth-place finish. In 2014 Espinoza became the first rider since 1978 to get two chances at the Triple Crown. Despite the jockey’s best efforts, however, California Chrome struggled to a dead heat for fourth place in the Belmont. In late 2014 Espinoza posted an improbable victory in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California, when he won the Juvenile Fillies aboard 61–1 long shot Take Charge Brandi.

2015 Belmont Stakes

Then in 2015 Espinoza became the first jockey with a consecutive shot at the American Triple Crown. After rallying the Baffert-trained American Pharoah to a one-length win in the Kentucky Derby—becoming just one of six jockeys to have back-to-back victories in that race—they posted a seven-length victory in the rain and slop at the Preakness Stakes. Entering the Belmont Stakes, Espinoza and American Pharoah were the favourites, though the jockey had never won the race. However, the duo easily took first place, winning by 5¹/₂ lengths. American Pharoah became the 12th Triple Crown winner and the first since Affirmed in 1978, and Espinoza, who was 43, was the oldest jockey to capture the Triple Crown.

In July 2018 Espinoza broke his neck during a training session, and he did not return to racing until February 2019. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2017.