Cincinnati — Ohio’s Best Race Card wasn’t kind to Sonny Leon. He only lost two, four or six times, riding what he thought was a competitor seven times. Leon’s best shot at Bertera Park last Friday was on a rumble strip at the $ 100,000 green carpet stakes.
Like a particular vehicle on the first Saturday of May, Leon allowed his Colt to lean one mile behind the other 11 horses before giving his head. Rumble strip slingshot made a slingshot on the last turn, overtaking eight rivals at once.
Alas, Leon and his Colt ended short of the winner’s neck.
“It’s not my day,” Leon said, shrugging, but turned into a smile when his wife, Chris, and his three-month-old daughter, Paula, hugged him.
They weren’t the only ones hanging around the paddock. His parents with a child in his twenties and an elderly couple with a quarter of a slot machine swaying in a cup surrounded him. They wanted selfies and programs signed by the 2022 Kentucky Derby winning rider.
Leon knew many of their names long before he brought the 80-1 shot named Rich Strike back to Derby. This racetrack and casino on the banks of the Ohio River is his living room for six months a year.
“These are my people,” said Leon of Venezuela. “This is my house.”
When Leon edging Rich Strike at the Belmont Stakes start gate on Saturday at Belmont Park, the foal becomes more curious than the conquering hero. The Derby winner is also not a favorite in Belmont, the third leg of the Triple Crown, a race known as the champion’s test for its harsh one and a half mile distance.
For everyone except Thoroughbred Racing Cognosenti, Leon was a little-known jock from the Grits and Hard Toast Circuits, throwing a big-time race-riding masterpiece in Louisville, Kentucky for two minutes. A tearful skimming trip from Mona Lisa.
“It was a beauty and a once-in-a-lifetime ride,” said Jeff Perrin, an Australian Leon agent who made his derby debut like a rider.
The foundation of that moment was laid on a racetrack like the Bertera Park, which was cut into an oval shape from the meadow. The apron is dotted with tables and umbrellas, home to grooms, trainers, owners who have devoted their lives to horses, and enthusiasts and retirees who can afford to spend weekday afternoons.
Thirty yards away, there is a completely different world. Air-conditioned casinos are crowded and slot din, din, din, coin avalanches call on both winners and losers.
32-year-old Leon has crossed Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and West Virginia for seven years, competing up to 1,100 races a year at casino racetracks such as Bertera, in front of dozens instead of thousands. I’ve been competing and spending a lonely night away from my family. ..
Still, he is very good at his work. Last year he won the 11th most 226 races in the country.
Frenchman Flavien Prat, who rides WethePeople, a favorite of Belmont’s 2: 1 morning line, won just 20 more races than last year’s Leon. Still, Plat, who is currently in New York, earns more than $ 23 million in wallets compared to Leon’s $ 3 million.
difference? A better horse, a bigger purse.
Pratt won the highest level of Grade I races above 40, but Derby was just Leon’s second elite race. Pratt averages over $ 25,000 per start, compared to Leon’s $ 3,000.
Leon’s victory in Derby resonated in the jockey’s room of minor league tracks everywhere. Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson or Jets defeated Colts in the Super Bowl III.
But no one appreciated it as much as Perry Wayne Ouse, Dean of the Jockey Colony at Bertera Park. At the age of 67, he won 7,267 races and was fifth on the sports career list after Hall of Fame players such as Bill Shoemaker and Laffit Pincay Jr.
Looking at Derby, Utz said he saw Leon and Rich Strike at the top of the stretch and knew that Leon would run down Pratt on the epicenters Zandon and Joel Rosario.
“These two are future Hall of Fame players, but he looks better and rides better races in the saddle than they do,” Ouzts said. “Just because a man is on a small track doesn’t mean he’s not talented. It doesn’t mean he has the luck to ride a really good horse or the chance to compete in a big race. It means that. “
Leon is a self-made jockey. He grew up in La Victoria, Aragua, near the Caribbean. He didn’t know much about racehorses, but a young man who looked like him was short, light, and his arms seemed to be pulled by steel cables, competing at the national racetrack.
After attending a jockey school, he worked at the home circuit, won races and praised his professional attitude. Prior to his successful transition to the United States, there were two riders, Javier Castellano and Ramon Dominguez.
“I knew I needed to go to America. If I wanted to make a profession from horseback riding,” Leon said.
In June 2015, Leon landed at Gulfstream Park in Broward County, Florida. I planned to run as many horses as possible in the morning, hoping to catch the attention of the agent. The problem was that Gulfstream was on Ellis Island, a Latin American jockey, arriving on a similar plan to Leon.
“The agent didn’t get my book,” Leon said. However, several trainers gave him a ride and he earned enough money to go to Turfway Park in Florence, Kentucky, near the Ohio border.
“I don’t know who told me to go,” Leon said. “No one knew here, but after driving for 16 hours, I found an apartment near the racetrack and went to work.”
Leon quickly established himself as a strong and sophisticated rider, and after surpassing more than $ 1.2 million in revenue by 2018, he caught the eye of the agent.
“He had a better opportunity and was more confident as a rider,” Perrin said. “Sony also has a good way to communicate with people and it’s really important. A good jockey isn’t just what the horse is doing well, but what he works on. I know how to tell the trainer if I need it. “
With the move to Perrin, Leon has access to trainer Eric Reed. Eric Reed was once an old school and operates a completely modern power plant barn. His 60-acre farm, Mercury Horse Center, on the outskirts of Lexington, Kentucky, has 160 horse stalls, open pastures, and a five-eighth mile long training track.
In Europe, this setting is called a training yard and is considered to have the best conditions for turning a horse into a horse.
With more than half a dozen racetracks in four states just hours away, Reed and Perrin can tailor horses. Leon usually goes with them — in the last 18 months he has ridden Reed’s 280 horses and won with a 20 percent clip.
“It’s a very team-like approach,” Reed said. “I don’t know how important Sunny was to take Rich Strike to its current location.”
Last September, Reed and horse owner Rick Dawson charged Rich Strike for $ 30,000 in a race at Churchill Downs. Keen Ice’s son was a large strap Colt bred to go the classic one mile and quarter. The following month, they looked smart when Rich Strike finished third in a mile race at Lexington’s Keeneland.
Leon didn’t ride the Colt at either time. But Reed and Dawson believed that their talented Colt would work with Rich Strike to benefit from a strong rider who was loyal to him. Especially when the derby approaches, big time riders become capricious and can leave you to a prominent horse.
Leon took his first Rich Strike in December at the Gun Runner Stakes in Fairgrounds, New Orleans. They finished in 5th place, far from the epicenter, overtaking the foal on Derby’s final stride.
“He was talented, but he was really green,” Leon said of his Colt. “He was still growing.”
In the spring, the best horses will be shipped to Florida, Arkansas, or Keeneland to earn points to qualify for Derby. Reed, Dawson and Leon have properly chosen the back road through Turfway Park. The Turfway, with its synthetic racetrack, is attractive to winter trainers and owners. The surface is consistent in all weather conditions and is therefore considered safer for horses.
At Jeffruby Steak, the final preparation on April 2nd at Turfway, Leon turned on the afterburner on the foal and put it on the rails after Rich Strike chased the other 10 horses three-quarters of a mile. I asked you to blow up along. He did it effortlessly and finished in 3rd place.
“Now we have a derby horse,” Leon told Reed.
Not perfect.
Rich Strike needed a scratch on Ethereal Road to make the field in the last few minutes of Friday’s deadline. He had to move away from post 20 and hang his left on the rails, stick to it like a magnet, and overtake 14 horses in the last quarter mile.
The rest are, well, life-changing. It’s Sony.
Leon thought hard before answering. He had 10 mounts on Bertera and 1 mount on Horseshoe Indianapolis on Thursday before arriving in New York on Friday.
“I won the biggest race in America, and yes, it’s an honor,” Leon said. “But I’ve become smarter and humble. I had to do it right with Eric and the team. They supported me — all the owners and trainers here gave me It gave me my life. I may move on in the future, but now I want to stay in Ohio. “