62-year-old jockey Jose Ferrer says he’s not the retiring type; 5,000 career wins is his new goal

OCEANPORT, N.J. – Jockey Jose Ferrer had his future plans all mapped out at the start of the summer. He would reach 4,900 wins – a long-stated goal – and then retire from riding to start his second career as a steward after attending the Racing Officials Accreditation Program in Lexington, Ky. from Sept. 27 through Oct. 4.

Except the 62-year has called an audible heading into the final weekend of the Monmouth Park meet.

And it has less to do with being 15 wins shy of his stated goal and more that he feels he is simply not the retiring type right now.
          “I feel great. I’m riding well and I’m fit and healthy – those are the most important things,” he said. “So why not keep riding? I’m having a solid meet at Monmouth Park (with 20 wins he is sixth in the rider standings) and I feel like I want to keep doing what I’m doing.”

So now there’s a new goal for the 2018 George Woolf Memorial Award winner: 5,000 career wins, a total achieved by just 39 North American jockeys according to Equibase. Then retirement – maybe.

“I’m going to postpone stewards school. I still want to do that eventually. I think I’d be a good steward,” he said. “But as good as I feel right now my new goal is 5,000 wins.

“If I can win 50 races each of the next two years it will get me there.”

Overall this year, Ferrer has ridden 41 winners from 278 mounts, with his hope being that he can get 15 more wins before this year ends, between Monmouth Park’s final two racing days, the Monmouth-at-Meadowlands and the start of the Tampa Bay Downs meet on Nov. 18. Ferrer and his family live in Tampa.

“We’ll see how it goes,” said Ferrer. “Right now I want to keep going.”

A fan favorite and fixture at Monmouth Park, Ferrer returned this summer to the Jersey Shore track after riding there every year since he launched his career there on June 30, 1982 aboard a horse named Lady Treleaven through 2023.

The San Juan, Puerto Rico native went 0-for-24 in his first year as a rider in the United States in 1982 but never got frustrated, he said.

“My uncle (former jockey Carlos Lopez, Sr.) and my cousin (former jockey Chuck Lopez) had a plan for me then,” said Ferrer. “They wanted me to get experience and not worry about winning races at first. It was all about getting a foundation.

“They both told me it would be frustrating at times and that would be like a roller-coaster. But I never got frustrated. I knew my future was here.”

Listed to ride in five races on Saturday’s eight-race card, Ferrer said he wants to at least ride the first weekend of the all-turf Monmouth-at-Meadowlands meet that gets underway on Sept. 18.

“That would mean a lot to me because that’s the track I rode my first winner at (aboard Steps Fancy on Jan. 1, 1983),” he said. “After that I’ll play it by ear. I’d like to take a little time off to relax and be with the family and try to re-charge. I don’t want to beat up my body too much.

“I want to ride the Tampa meet when it starts (on Nov. 18). So I want to re-charge my body for that.”

In addition to his 4,885 wins, Ferrer has 4,396 seconds and 3,962 thirds from 32,816 career mounts. He won the Monmouth Park riding title in 2018 – the last jockey to do so before Paco Lopez took those honors the next seven years. Lopez is on his way to clinching his eighth straight riding title and record-tying 13^th overall this weekend (Joe Bravo also won 13 Monmouth Park riding titles).

Unedited Press Release Monmouth Park

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