NEWS
Jockey Ouzts earns milestone 5,000th victory
Posted: Tuesday, August 21, 2007 4:57 PM
Jockey Perry Ouzts needed only one victory on Tuesday to record his 5,000th career victory, and the 53-year-old rider wasted no time reaching the milestone.
The Lepanto, Arkansas, native reeled off three straight wins to kick off the nine-race card at Rivers Downs. Ouzts guided Kandinsky to a front-running 3 3/4-length victory in the opener to register his 5,000th win and become only the 22nd North American rider to accomplish the feat.
Kandinsky set a pressured pace in the six-furlong claiming race and was headed on the turn. The five-year-old Stephen Got Even colt re-rallied under Ouzts and powered clear under a stiff drive.
Ouzts followed with victories aboard G Areyoukidding in the second race and Don’t Rock My Boat in the third.
"I want to thank all of the trainers and owners who helped put me in this situation," said an emotional Ouzts, whose mounts have earned more than $29-million in purse earnings. “Most of all, I want to thank my wife, Toni, for all of the support she has given me through the years. She's a big part of this."
Ouzts was sidelined for more than ten months after suffering a compound fracture of his right forearm and five fractured vertebrae in a spill on January 29, 2006 at Turfway Park, where his mount, Finders Chance, fell at the quarter pole.
At the time of the spill, Ouzts was 96 wins away from 5,000 in his 33-year riding career.
Ouzts was expected to miss approximately eight weeks, but further examination revealed more significant injuries that required three surgeries and more than nine months of therapy.
“I want to get to 5,000,” Ouzts said when he returned to riding competitively. “Probably, if I already had 5,000, I might not care if I came back or not. I might say, ‘Well, it’s been a good career,’ and walk away. But I’m too close to quit now. Out of the thousands and thousands of guys that have ridden over the last hundred years or so, there’s only very few that’s ever done that, and I want to be one of them.”
