Fresh off wins on Art Collector in the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup and Rocket Can in the Holy Bull (G3), Horse Racing Nation's Andrew Capone caught up with jockey Junior Alvarado to talk about winning big races, how he stays so fit, how he got started as a jockey and summers in Saratoga.
Here's their conversation, edited for clarity.
Andrew: In the irons, Five-minute FaceTime with Junior Alvarado, the red-hot Junior Alvarado, No. 2 right now in the country and earnings coming off the Holy Bull points prep this past week and the Pegasus two weeks ago. Junior, How're you doing?
Junior: Good, good, good. I'm very good. Happy to be here today, and thank you for having me.
Andrew: So I gotta start off, Junior, I got to ask about these last two weeks. What is it like, your feelings right now? You've had both wins for Bill Mott, you have the phenomenal relationship together. Walk me through your feelings last two weeks. You must be 10,000 feet in the air. Junior: No, definitely, been extremely happy, very excited. I've been working my whole career as a jockey to accomplish all these dreams. To be able to be in those kind of races in now, just not only to be able to be in these races and just be able to win, it makes it great. That's why we wake up every morning, five, 5:30, 6 o'clock in the morning to go to the track, hustle and work horses. That's what we do to try to to be in this moment. Thank God everything's working out great. And I'm enjoying it. Andrew: I love to hear that. And I love to see the emotion you bring to the track and the hard work. That's going to lead me to question No. 2. I've seen you without your silks on before, just in a turtle shell, and your arms are huge. And you probably have to be the most fit out of any jockey and the most muscular build on any jockey. Walks me through a little bit what you do to prepare yourself to really stay in that fitness level, because you are really strong. And it definitely shows when you get on the back of a horse. Junior: I think as a jockey, you're normally extremely fit, just to be able to get on horses and work horses and ride horses. It keeps your body very fit. It takes a lot. It's a lot of work, how you do when you're on a horse, but for me, I tried to always be prepared. I want to be ready, so I don't have to get ready. You know what I mean? So my days off, I work out. Like if I ride two, three, four horses a day, I go home and I enjoy my time with my kids, and I still have a little extra energy. Or I go in and then I have my setup for a workout here at home, and I just keep working. I do an hour, whatever I feel, I jump up on the Peloton if I need to. When you make that part of your life, you feel like you always need to be doing it because it makes you feel good. And, like I said for me, it always helps, I'm always very fit. And I'm always ready. When it comes to go to head to head in a fight and head to head with another rider, I feel that I have the stuff. I mean, I feel that I have the power to go head to head with anybody just like I just love to be ready for any occasion. Andrew: Well, it's clearly paying off, and we see it in the stats on the track and head to head when you get on another horse. We're seeing you again and again get forward. So it's definitely working out. Question No. 3, where did this all start? When did this all start? How did you decide, I want to become a jockey. And what was that family support when you're coming up? A lot of mothers weren't necessarily happy about their child becoming a jockey. How did you decide you want to become a jockey? And how'd you end up in Florida and then New York? Junior: Yeah, I don't think my parents were very thrilled for me to be a jockey. They at least encouraged me to finish high school, I remember. But I have a memory, like probably I was 4 or 5 years, I knew that I wanted to be a jockey. I did many things. I remember playing soccer, I played baseball, but my heart was set out to be a jockey, I wanted to be on a horse, I wanted to ride horses, I wanted to be in races. I wanted to be that competitive and, like I say, even though my mom and my dad never were too great about it, now as a parent, I understand 100 percent why they didn't want me to. But they just couldn't hold me, you know, I did what I needed to do. I started riding in Venezuela 2004 then in 2007, the beginning of the year, February, I moved here to the USA and I started riding in Florida. Then I moved to Chicago 2008, and I moved my tack in 2012 to New York and thank God I have a lot of support. A lot of trainers and lot of owners have been helping me, and the main thing for me is my family, my family support has been getting me through all this. Andrew: Yeah, there's definitely great family support there. And that leads me perfectly into question No. 4. And that is, tell me all about what it's like to be at Saratoga in the summer and what that means to you with your whole family there. I've never seen such an amazing environment with your wife and your sons all working at the mac-and-cheese truck. When we look at other sports, there's not necessarily that opportunity to bring your family to work every day. And you really can do that at Saratoga. And it's amazing to watch how how happy you are up there and how happy your family is. What is that like to you, that summer Saratoga experience? Junior: Yeah, it is unbelievable. And every year that's one of the best times we're looking forward to. For me, it gets to be a lot of work in the morning and the afternoon, but we have enough time off too. Like a couple of days off to go fishing with my kids. We go and do trip roads with hiking, we do everything we like on the days off. My son last year he got to work at the mac-and-cheese truck right there at the track. For him it was like an unbelievable experience. He was loving it, he was working there like he owns the truck. And really for me just to see that, so much passion that he got to work in the morning and the dedication he was putting into it, it really means a lot to me, to make make me feel that whatever my wife and me are doing, we're doing something right at least and he was unbelievable. Also, just having time to go dinner in the afternoon with my wife, having my own time with her. So like I said, to me every single day it’s just beautiful to be in Saratoga. It's an unbelievable experience. Sometimes, just talking and saying doesn't do justice. You have to live it to really know what it is like. Andrew: If you follow you and your wife on Instagram, it's either baseball, fishing or dinners for you. I see you out there fishing in the afternoon, playing baseball. It's definitely a great experience. Last question for you. Question No. 5, Cody's Wish. This is the type of story that keeps people in horse racing and brings new people into horse racing. Tell me a little bit what that experience was like for you and what this entire Breeders' Cup meant to you? Junior: It was an unbelievable experience for me to win (my) first Breeders' Cup. It was great, but I guess I just had my mind set up that I wanted to do it for them. I wasn't really focused for me to being my first Breeders' Cup. And I did enjoy it. But I think I enjoyed the most just to be able to deliver that win for them, for their family, for Cody Dorman and, and I guess it was a little bit for the horse racing (sport). They needed that too, so I was just very happy to be part of it. It was an unbelievable experience. It was an amazing win, and I remember crossing the wire first. But more than just being my first Breeders' Cup, I just think it was just very happy just to have that for Cody, for the whole racing thing. We needed something like that and just be able to do accomplish that is unbelievable. Andrew: Well, that's Junior Alvarado. Five questions, five-minute FaceTime. Junior, I appreciate it. Congratulations again on the on the Breeders' Cup, the Pegasus and now the Holy Bull and good luck on the rest of the Derby trail. Junior: Thank you very much. And like I said, we'll keep working. Hopefully we can get accomplish more big things this year. And thank you again.
