Good Morning!

Welcome to a new post here at zoelouisesmithx.com. Today’s post is a really interesting one and even though it may be a little shorter than some of my posts I really wanted to share!

Eddie Castro was born on April 10th 1985 and is a Panamanian born jockey in America. Eddie attended the Panamanian Jockey School and began riding in races in December 2002 at 17 years old. In just 3 months he had rode 36 winners and decided to move to America where he made his debut on April 16th 2003 at Gulfstream Park in Florida. Even though his American career started 3 months into a season, he still managed to win the U.S. Champion Apprentice Jockey in 2003 so he made quite the impact in his first season.

Eddie Castro currently has over 2,500 career wins, including many major races under his belt, including the Galaxy Stakes in 2004, Spinster Stakes in 2005, Sorority Stakes in 2006, Molly Pitcher Stakes in 2007, Indiana Breeders’ Cup Oaks in 2008, Jersey Shore Breeders’ Cup Stakes in 2009, Pennsylvania Derby in 2009, Affirmed Stakes in 2015 and one of the biggest races, the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 2006. However, none of that is what I want to share with you…

On June 4th 2005 at Calder Racecourse, Eddie Castro had 11 rides on a 13 race card. Just the day before on June 3rd he won five races at the same track, so he was in pretty good form. But it was this day that he broke the record for the most wins by a jockey in a single day at one racetrack in North America. The record for the most wins in a single day at one racetrack was held by 6 jockeys with the most recent being Ken Shino at Fonner Park on April 2nd 2000 when he won eight races and the record for the most wins in a single day was held by Chris Antley who rode four winners at Aqueduct during the day and five winners at Meadowlands on the evening on October 31st in 1987.

However, Eddie Castro managed to win 9 of his 11 mounts breaking the first record of a single day at one racetrack and matching the second record of most wins in a single day.

His day went as follows:

Race 1: 2nd – Southphilly Barry

Race 2: 1st – Bill’s No Trouble

Race 3: 1st – Snug Harbour

Race 4: 1st – Dakota Max

Race 5: No Mount

Race 6: 1st – Five Star Susan

Race 7: No Mount

Race 8: 4th – Broadway Buck

Race 9: 1st – Kin’s Hurrah

Race 10: 1st – Sebastian Light

Race 11: 1st – Carey’s Gold

Race 12: 1st – Agent Won

Race 13: 1st – Ben’s Advantage

After winning his 9th race, Eddie Castro told local news reporters:

When I’m riding these kind of horses, I just try to take advantage and make the most of it; but it takes some luck to win this many.”

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/170179/eddie-castros-9-wins-at-calder-sets-record

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To put what he did into perspective, the current record in the UK is held by both Frankie Dettori and Richard Hughes who both won seven races in one day at one course. First was Frankie Dettori in September 1996 who won all 7 races on a card at Ascot. Followed by Richard Hughes who won 7 out of 8 races in October 2012 at Windsor. The first woman rider to win five races in a day under rules was set by Hollie Doyle in August 2020 at Windsor.

When Frankie, Richard and Hollie achieved what they did every racing fan thought it was incredible – because it is – but imagine only being 20 years old and winning 9 rides in a day, that is some going.

Will anyone ever beat this record? There has been much discussion and from every article, tweet, blog I have read not many think his record will ever get beaten and it would not surprise me if it didn’t.

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Now, I am not up to date with American racing and I won’t claim to be, but more recently I have been finding a lot of interesting stories from American racing and I want to start sharing more of them.

I really enjoyed reading about this one so I hope you all have to. This is my final post for the week so I hope you’ve all had a brilliant Ascot and I hope today goes well also but I will next see you on Wednesday evening at 6pm with a brand new post, which is all about possibly the worst jockey in the history of horse racing… Who could it be? You do not want to miss that one!