Each month we’ll take a trip to the backstretch and visit with a different jockey or trainer. This month the spotlight is on jockey Gabriel Saez, who is riding in New York this winter following the retirement of trainer Larry Jones, for whom Saez had ridden regularly since soon after his arrival in the United States from Panama. Born and raised on a fruit farm in Port Darien, Panama, Saez graduated from the Laffit Pincay Jockey School in 2005 and was the top apprentice in his native country the same year. Upon arriving in the U.S. in 2006, he caught the eye of trainer Larry Jones at Delaware Park, and began riding regularly for him that year.

Saez’s relationship with Jones led to stakes mounts about Proud Spell, Eight Belles, Kodiak Kowboy and most recently, Friesan Fire. 2008 proved to be a breakout year for Saez, in which he rode Proud Spell to two Grade 1 victories in the Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs and the Alabama at Saratoga Race Course. That year also brought his first mount in the Kentucky Derby aboard the filly Eight Belles. Her brave second-place finish behind Big Brown and ahead of 18 other 3-year-old colts was marred by her tragic breakdown after the wire, an experience that greatly troubled Saez, then just 20 years old.

With Jones announcing his retirement effective at the end of 2009 to become an assistant trainer for his wife, Cindy, Saez is exploring new options and arrived in New York late last year to ride the Winter/Spring Meet at Aqueduct.

On the Lead sat down with Saez at Aqueduct in late January to discuss past successes and future plans as the young rider works to establish himself in New York.

Q: You grew up in Panama, which also produced some of the best jockeys the sport has ever seen – Laffit Pincay, Braulio Baeza, Jorge Velasquez, Jacinto Vasquez, and those are just the Hall of Famers. Did you always want to be a jockey?

Saez [Laughs]:  Yes…I didn’t really want to go to school when I was in sixth grade. My uncle [Oscar Chavez] was a jockey and I decided to go to jockey school because I could have a career without really going to school.

Q: But at the Laffit Pincay school, you still had to go to classes, didn’t you?

Saez: We learn the basics about horses and also English and math and stuff, and we do that for like two years in the school. After that, we learn to ride.

Q: You’ve been with your agent, Ruben Munoz since you came to this country and I understand he actually came to scout you when you were riding in Panama? How has he helped you build your career in this country?

Saez: Yeah, he came to find me in Panama. He is the one that came to get to get me at my house when I finished school! My uncle Oscar is a rider in Singapore and, he knows Cornelio Velasquez (a longtime New York Journeyman, also Panamanian). So, when I came home from jockey school, my uncle talked to Cornelio, to try to find me an agent over here. He told me to decide if I wanted to come [to Singapore] with him, or go over to the United States. I decided so quick! 

I’ve been with Ruben for four years now. He’s is like my father, you know? He helps me with all my stuff, all the papers. He tries to teach me to ride the right way – you know, do this, don’t do that, and don’t make mistakes. Sometimes I do anyway though!

Q: He’s also a flight attendant, right? How does that work?

Saez: Yeah, he’s a flight attendant. Dark days between races he’ll fly and do his travel stuff, and then come back. He always tries to do it when there are no races and no entries. He’s got it figured out. 

Q: I understand that you won the very first you rode in the United States – is that true?

Saez: Actually, the first race I rode here was on the grass, the turf course at Gulfstream. It was my first time on the grass, ever. And I came in first, but I got taken down because my horse started out in the first lane, but I finished in the eighth lane. I was drifting out, drifting out, drifting out and I got taken down. I don’t remember the horse’s name. I rode the last month at Gulfstream in 2006 because I wanted to get used to it before I came to Delaware. When we came to Delaware, I get my first mount, we win. We win the second one, we win the third, we won a lot of races in Delaware that year. (Saez was the leading apprentice at Delaware Park in 2006.)

Q: When you were an apprentice in Delaware, New York’s current leading rider, Ramon Dominguez, was still riding down there full time. Did he help you at all when you were starting out?

Saez: We’re really good friends. We talk about stuff all the time between races, if something happens in the race, we talk to each other. Ramon is one of the greatest jockeys right now and I have a lot of respect for him. 

Q: You rode a lot for Larry Jones, even when you first starting out at Delaware in 2006. He gave you your first Breeders’ Cup mount aboard Proud Spell in 2007 and you finished second to two-time Eclipse award winner Indian Blessing in the Juvenile Fillies. How has Larry helped you in your career so far?

Saez: Larry…he’s the best boss ever. He gave me the best opportunities I’ve ever had in my life – that I never would have gotten from somebody else – and I really appreciate them. I won a lot of big races with him and I’m really happy about that. It was the best opportunity. I still keep up with him all the time, I have to. I hope Larry comes back to training someday, he’s a good guy. 

Q: You’re riding in New York for the first time this year – why now?

Because Larry said he was he going to retire, and I can’t keep following him for the rest of my life.  When he decided to give all of his big horses away and go back to Oaklawn, I didn’t want to go.  So, we decided to come to New York, because when we first started, the goal, in my mind, was going to New York no matter what. When Larry said ‘I’m going to give all my horses away and we’ll have 20 horses at Oaklawn, do you guys want to come with me?’ I knew right away. I said ‘Larry, I’m sorry, I want to go with you, but I don’t want to go back to Oaklawn Park.” Now, I’m trying to do the best I can and keep my career going and be one of the great riders one day, I hope. You never know.

Q: How do you like riding in New York so far? 

Saez: I love it. I really love it. I can get used to anything, but I really like it here.

Q: Is there anything you don’t like about it?

Saez: Not really. Well, there’s a lot of traffic here. I don’t like that.

Q: While this is your first year riding full time in New York, you’ve ridden races over the other two NYRA tracks, Belmont and Saratoga in the past few years. Do you have a favorite?

Saez: I love Saratoga – I love it. Everybody loves Saratoga, right? It’s the greatest – Belmont is okay, but nothing is like Saratoga. A lot of people go there, it’s packed every day and we ride for the people. We’re like a show – everybody comes to see us. I love that meet. 

Q: Could it be that you love it so much because you’ve been very successful there? In 2008 you won the Grade 1 Alabama on Proud Spell and the Grade 2 Amsterdam on Kodiak Kowboy.

Saez: That meet, the 2008 meet, I went from Delaware to Saratoga like seven times. I woke up early in the morning and I’d drive up there and go right to the jock’s room and ride and then go back to Delaware. I was back and forth, back and forth.

Q: What is your goal in New York this winter?

Saez: I want to make more connections and open doors for next year. I’m going to go back to Delaware in the summer, but I’m going to come back here next winter, and I’m going to try to stay. That’s my ambition.

Q: What do you ultimately hope to accomplish by being here?

Saez: New York has good horsemen, and you can get the big horses to go to the Breeders’ Cup and to the Derby, and to Saratoga. A lot of the top riders are here, and I want to be one of the big guys. I don’t want to stay the rest of my life in Delaware. Ramon came from there, and now he’s here.

Q: What do you like to do in your spare time?

Saez: When I’m not riding? I love to listen to music, I like everything. And I like to play sports, besides riding horses. Soccer and stuff, when it’s hot outside. And I play Playstation a lot. But what can I say – riding horses is my life. I couldn’t live without riding horses. Wake up five in the morning, grab my cup of coffee, go to the track…I love that, for sure.

Q: What do you like the most about your job?

Saez: The horses. 

Q: Do you have a favorite horse?

Saez: Proud Spell. And Eight Belles. I got so lucky with Larry, to ride for him. You can’t find a lot of people like him in this business. I made a lot of mistakes for him. When I screwed up at Oaklawn in 2007 [suspended 30 days for marijuana violation], he said ‘I’m going to give you one more opportunity, don’t mess it up again.’  And I didn’t, and see how many races we won? When I was 15 I was in Panama, and now I’m in New York. I’m going to be 22 next week and I’ve got the rest of my life. This is what I do for a living, what I decided to do, and I’m going to do this until I can’t do it anymore.