Breeders’ Cup Presents Connections: ‘Instead Of Finding An Excuse, I Tried To Find A Solution’

Ruben Fuentes aboard his first Grade 1 winner, Ohio, winner of the Frank E. Kilroe Mile for trainer Michael McCarthy

Jockeys at Santa Anita are currently staying in trailers near the paddock during the race week, a step toward the “new normal” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. They eat meals together (provided by Santa Anita via local restaurants), have organized group activities in a common area in the evenings, and the living accommodations are quite nice, but jockeys do have to be away from their families and loved ones in order to ride races.

It would be easy to find the situation difficult, though the riders are obviously grateful to be able to race again. Still, 22-year-old Ruben Fuentes is rather enjoying the extra time he’s been able to spend with the Southern California jockey colony.

“I actually kind of like it, and Santa Anita has done a great job taking care of us,” Fuentes said. “Normally we see each other in the jock’s room, obviously, so we all know each other, but it’s nice to spend more time together because it’s something we wouldn’t normally get the opportunity to do.”

Friday evening was karaoke night, Fuentes said, and he laughed remembering Hall of Famer Mike Smith’s dancing antics in the jockeys’ common area. Other activities have included movies, poker, and even video games, but Fuentes’ favorite part of the isolation has been listening to the other riders tell their stories.

“Everybody’s been sharing their experiences,” he said. “Victor Espinoza told us about winning the Triple Crown as well as riding in Japan. He said, in Japan they obligate you to be isolated for the whole weekend, so he kind of already lived this. Mike already lived this in Arlington, when the whole grandstand caught on fire and burned down (in 1985). He said, ‘Now you guys got these trailers with A/C and Direct TV, back then they gave us a tent and a security guard, and that was about it. We were all sleeping on the grass!’”

Fuentes’ positive attitude facing a difficult situation is nothing new. The well-spoken young rider grew up in a family of jockeys, from his father, three uncles, to his two brothers. He always dreamed of following in his family’s footsteps, but struggled to find his own way.

Born in his father’s native Mexico, Fuentes moved to the U.S. when he was just a few months old and grew up in El Paso, Texas. All through his early education and especially in high school, Fuentes and his brothers spent their free time learning everything they could about riding horses.

“We had our own jockey school,” he explained, then laughed: “And I was always the one who didn’t do as well as my brothers.”

When Fuentes felt ready to ride his first races and was finally named on a few mounts, the timing happened to coincide with an equine herpesvirus outbreak in 2016 at Sunland Park in New Mexico. Racing was cancelled indefinitely, and Fuentes called his father, upset.

“I told my dad, ‘I just want to ride,’” Fuentes said.

Home away from home for Ruben Fuentes at Santa Anita

Pulling a few strings, his father got him two mounts in Mexico City that weekend. Fuentes rode his first two races on his father’s birthday – Feb. 26, 2016 – and finished dead last on both horses.

“I was only 17 years old, and mentally you’re not prepared to fail that bad right away,” Fuentes said. “I went back to New Mexico and went back to galloping horses and working horses, and I kept learning. I guess everything happens for a reason. Nothing has ever come easy for me, so it’s made me work even harder.”

Six months later Fuentes felt ready to try again, but it still took him more than 40 starts to win his first race.

That oh-so-sweet moment of victory was worth every previous ounce of disappointment.

“I just love the horses and the sport so much, I said, ‘I’m gonna do whatever it takes and just keep trying,’” Fuentes said. “I never really thought I’d be here, but I never gave up.”

After he’d ridden in New Mexico and then Arizona for a few months, Scott Stevens, the race-riding brother of Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens, told Fuentes about an opportunity opening up in Southern California. Gary Stevens was about to undergo hip replacement surgery, and his agent was looking for a new rider.

Fuentes jumped at the chance. He hooked up with agent Saul Marquez a few months after the move, and he has been steadily improving his skills and riding better and better horses for the last three years. His win percentage and earnings have gone up each season, as well, despite battling some of the top jockeys in the country.

“I really believe I belong here, so I said, ‘I’m gonna give it a try,’” Fuentes recalled. “It took a while to kind of get familiarized with trainers, and for trainers to get comfortable with me and for people to get confident in me. Saul taught me a lot of things in the business, he’s been a big help… You know, I just figured I’m gonna struggle here, or I’m gonna struggle somewhere else, so I might as well do it for a better reward!”

Last year was Fuentes’ best season yet: he won 74 times, including several graded stakes races. In fact, the first time he rode in a Grade 1 race was with Ohio in the March 30 Frank E. Kilroe Mile; that day, Fuentes and the Michael McCarthy trainee pulled a $21.20 upset to hold on by a nose at the wire!

Queen Bee to You and jockey Ruben Fuentes after the G3 Bayakoa at Los Alamitos

His favorite mount thus far has been Queen Bee To You, a multiple graded stakes-winning mare who recently retired. Still, working every day against some of the best riders in the country has not dimmed Fuentes’ love of the sport at all levels.

“Instead of finding an excuse, I tried to find a solution,” Fuentes said of his refusal to give up. “I kept trying something different; if you want to be successful you have to do something different from the rest so you have that edge when it comes to a certain race or racing in general.

“There’s a local hiking trail here that I use almost every dark day, I try breezing a horse in the morning, I watch a lot of replays, I try to be really fit, just to use every piece of advantage that I can get.”

Away from the track, Fuentes has found his passion in cars. He loves learning about their mechanics, and even detailing them to perfection. Fuentes spoke eloquently about the differences between his BMW, built for raw speed, versus the bright blue sports car driven by jockey Drayden Van Dyke, which Fuentes described as built for better agility.

The adrenaline rush of speeding away in his vehicle is a lot like his job on the track, Fuentes said, but on a day to day basis it’s the unpredictability of racing that keeps him coming back for more.

“It’s a job where, every time we load in the gate it’s a different scenario,” Fuentes said. “It’s not like an office job, where you have the same schedule every day. Every horse is different, every race is different, and anything can happen during the race. You’re kind of there for a thrill; every moment we’re on those horses is so much fun. It’s unpredictable in a good way. We have something maybe like a plan, but they’re animals, so they have a mind of their own as well, and anything can happen when the gate opens.”

On Friday, for example, a juvenile filly reared coming out of the gate and gave Fuentes a hard knock to the face. He went on to ride the rest of his mounts on the card, and rode Saturday with a black eye. It’s just another day out of the office for a young man working to pursue his dreams.