“He Was There for Me”: $125,459,062 Worth Jockey Shares Candid Confession After Winning Reputed Equestrian Race

Winning a horse race is always a good achievement for a jockey. After months of hard work, dedication, and training with a horse, the happiness of reaching the finishing line first is indescribable. Equestrian Junior Alvarado has once again experienced the same feeling recently. The more than 125 million worth jockey won the Curlin stakes aboard the horse Scotland,  at the Saratoga Race Course.

Curlin Stakes is a race for three-year-old horses on dirt. This year the race saw five horses participating in it. Scotland took the lead early on in his debut race and maintained the lead throughout.  Alvarado was very happy with the horse which won him $135,000.

Scotland grabs the podium at Saratoga Race Course

The horse Scotland is trained by the Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. The Venezuelan jockey is his regular rider and practices his trade mostly in New York. Prior to this, Alvarado won at Arlington Park in the year 2009 and  Grade I Beverly D Stakes in the year 2010. For Scotland, this was his stakes debut. Before the race, the jockey had a talk with the trainer and convinced him to take two turns with the horse before the race to acclimatize him with the track. He was happy that it worked out.

Speaking after winning the race the jockey said he knew that the competitors will try to go with the horse outside so he paced his horse from the beginning. He further said, “ I just let him get comfortable, cruise along. He was traveling beautifully. I was always hoping he’d give me the kick that I was expecting at the end and I mean, when I turned for home and I asked him, he was there for me.”

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The second position in the race went to  Il Miracolo whose jockey was Luis Saez, and Blazing Sevens, trained by four-time curling-winning trainer Chad Brown, came in third. Chad said it was his plan to use this race as a stepping stone for Travers. Bill Mott has a lot of praise and expectations now from Scotland which added $74,250 to his lifetime earnings leading the total to $211,210.

Elated trainer after horse race win

Bill Mott said he was not surprised by the win. On paper, his horse was the best. His thought was that the horse on the outside Il Miracolo could try to take the lead because he came to Curlin winning the previous race. But that didn’t happen and he said, “I think they wanted to be on the lead, but we took it away from them. We had a good trip. We were on the lead and we were challenged a little bit, but not pressed overly hard.” Now all eyes are on $1.25 million Travers Stakes and when asked whether he sees any opportunity in that the Hall of Fame trainer said he will discuss the matter with stakeholders but, after this performance, it is on the list.

The Travers Stakes will be a test for Scotland who just saw his fourth career start. By winning the race the horse Scotland has proven his ability to the equestrian world and provided the jockey and trainer with hope of expecting a win at the Travers.

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