Juan Hernandez © Benoit Photo
Jockey Juan Hernandez has spent a lot of time atop the jockey standings at Del Mar. He’s won the summer meet four years running and until Umberto Rispoli wrestled away last fall’s Bing Crosby title Hernandez had won five riding titles in a row dating back to the summer of 2023. Since 2021 he has won seven of the 10 riding titles at the seaside oval and if it weren’t for Flavien Prat there might have been more.
The seven titles put him in a tie for the most by a jockey at Del Mar along with Bill Shoemaker, Rafael Bejarano and Prat. Of course, in the case of Shoemaker, there was no fall meet to win back in his day.
Hernandez has achieved some major milestones in his career since the last time we saw him ride at Del Mar. He rode in his first Kentucky Derby this spring, notched his 3,000th career win and even made the trip over to Royal Ascot. Another first for the 34-year-old rider.
It was not Hernandez first time at Churchill Downs on Derby Day this year but it was the first time he had a mount in the Run For the Roses. He rode Potente, a colt out of the Bob Baffert barn. The 12th-place finish in the Derby certainly didn’t detract from the experience for Hernandez.
“That was amazing,” Hernandez says. “It’s a crazy weekend over there but I had a really nice time. As a jockey you always dream to ride in a Kentucky Derby and I think my horse ran pretty good.”
Running against 17 other horses was a new experience for Hernandez.
“You have to come out of the gate and get position and then keep your position,” Hernandez notes. “Then you have to try to save some horse for the end of the race, because the mile and a quarter is a long race. It’s not easy but I think I rode my horse good and hope to try again next year.”
Of course nothing compares to riding in the Kentucky Derby, but the highlight to his weekend came the day before when he ran second in the Kentucky Oaks with Meaning. He got run down by the winner Always a Runner in the final strides.
“Turning for home I hit the lead at the quarter pole and I thought I got it,” Hernandez recalls. “But that other filly beat me. Still, that was another really good experience.”
The 3,000-win milestone came a couple of weeks after the Derby. He rode Syntax to victory in a starter-allowance race at Santa Anita on May 24.
“It was a really good feeling,” Hernandez remembers. “I worked hard to win all of those races and hitting 3,000 races was an amazing feeling. I’m really grateful for the owners and all of the trainers that support me. I’m grateful for my family here and back in Mexico. My agent Craig O’Bryan has been really good to me and has worked really hard to get some good mounts for me. I appreciate that, too. And the horses. I’ve had all of this success because of them. I just feel really good and hopefully I can win many more races.”
Then in June Hernandez flew across the pond and rode three races at Royal Ascot. Over the past year or so, Juan had become Wesley Ward’s go-to guy when the trainer brought horses out west. One such horse was Bacio, a 3-year-old colt by Maclean’s Music. When Ward decided to take Bacio over to Ascot, he asked if Hernandez and O’Bryan were on board.
“When I started back in Mexico I never imagined I would go ride over there,” Hernandez says of his trip to England. “I didn’t even know there were races over there. But then I moved here and watched those big races on TV and thought that looked so cool. My agent called me and asked if I wanted to go ride over there and I said ‘sure’ right away. We got a win and that made my trip beautiful.”
Bacio won the Palace of Holyroodhouse Handicap.
This will be Hernandez’ sixth year riding fulltime at Del Mar. He says his goals are still the same as when he first moved his tack here in 2020.
“My first goal at Del Mar is to win more races than last year,” Hernandez claims. “Try and break the number of wins I had the year before. So hopefully I’ll win at least one more and keep improving every year. After that it’s just win those big races. Ride hard and win the stakes races.”
It might be a bit tougher for Hernandez to exceed his 45 wins from 2025. There’s been a significant upgrade to the jockey colony this year with the addition of Hall of Famer Joel Rosario, Julien Leparoux, Joe Bravo, and Emisael Jaramillo.
“I think we have a really good quality group in here this year,” Hernandez observes. “I think it’s going to be challenging. Some good jockeys are showing up and joining the good jockeys that were already here.
“I like it,” Hernandez continues. “I think it’s good for everybody. Good for the trainers, good for the owners, good for the betting public and good for me because I like to challenge myself. You always improve when you’re riding with good riders. I’m just going to keep riding hard and hopefully get the best of every horse here.”
Just what you would expect from a seven-time riding champion.