Jockey Paco Lopez approaching 3,000th career victory
At 2h56, on April 10, 2021 • By GULFSTREAM PARK
Popular and personable jockey Paco Lopez, an Eclipse Award winner and twice the leading rider during Gulfstream Park’s prestigious Championship Meet, is on the verge of reaching a career milestone.
With 2,998 career Thoroughbred wins according to Equibase statistics, which also noted one quarter horse win in 2009 at Hialeah, Lopez, 35, is named in 10 of 11 races Saturday at Gulfstream.
“Just the thought of winning 3,000 races and being with him from the start is pretty phenomenal,” Lopez’s agent, Cory Moran, said. “We’ve been together through this and it’s been amazing.
Lopez is one of six children that grew up in poverty in Veracruz, Mexico, leaving home at age 12 to live with one of his sisters. He was shining shoes and working in a car wash for $30 a week when a customer offered him a ranch job. Soon he was riding in quarter horse races at bush tracks with incredible success, including all 13 races over a single weekend.
In 2006, Lopez relocated to South Florida to further his dream of becoming a jockey. He began exercising Thoroughbreds at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream’s satellite training facility in Palm Beach County, and launched his professional career in June 2007 at the former Calder Race Course.
