Champion Jockey Alberto Delgado Calls It a Career after Laurel Park’s Second Race

[Wandering Eyes]

Champion jockey Alberto Delgado, whose Eclipse Award came in 1982 when he was crowned the Champion Apprentice Jockey, has retired from racing.

“It's been coming for a long time,” Delgado said. “Over the years, I retired, but never because I wanted to. [It was] because of injuries, concussions. At some point, I was heavy, so I had to retire and get everything straight. Last year, I kept telling myself this would be my last year, and I had to build myself up for it. I still love it, but at some point you've got to step down. You can't keep this madness going.”

The announcement came shortly after Sunday's second race at Laurel Park. Delgado, a second-generation jockey from Carolina, Puerto Rico, won 245 races during his Eclipse Award-winning season. That year, on Aug. 16, he rode five consecutive winners at Delaware, then drove to Timonium, where he swept the late daily double. Delgado surpassed the 200-win mark in each of the next four years. In 1995, he finished second in the GI Preakness Stakes aboard Oliver's Twist (Horatius) four weeks after he and the colt won the GIII Federico Tesio Stakes.

More recently, during a stint in Southern California in 2013, Delgado rode eventual two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome in five of his first six starts. The Listed Graduation Stakes at Hollywood Park was part of that stretch. He would later be replaced by Victor Espinoza ahead of the Triple Crown bid.

“I worked him for the first time, and I knew he was a super horse,” Delgado said. “I told the owner as soon as I broke his maiden that this horse would win the Derby the next year. He was something amazing.”

Delgado retires with a record of 2,951 wins in 25,534 rides and career earnings of $42,072,982. He earned 115 stakes wins, including 10 graded triumphs, and captured five Maryland Million races. He reports that his next plan is to move into training horses.

“This morning [Sunday], when I woke up, I was tearing up,” Delgado said. “It's funny. I've always made fun of these athletes when they retire. You see the speech, and they're crying. I'm like 'Ah, what a sissy, I can't believe he's crying'. Now, I'm in those shoes, and I know how they feel. It's tough. It's something you've done all your life. All my generation. I was like the Last of the Mohicans. I've got to step aside, and let them do their thing.”

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