NEWS
Albarado nails down milestone 4,000th career win
Posted: Saturday, May 30, 2009 5:57 PM
ROBBY ALBARADO
PhotosByZ.com/Keeneland
Jockey Robby Albarado recorded his 4,000th career victory on Saturday when he guided Keertana to a come-from-behind win in the ninth race at Churchill Downs.
Albarado positioned the Johar filly in fifth early in the 1 1/16-mile turf race for three-year-old fillies. Keertana split foes in the stretch and powered clear to secure the milestone win for Albarado.
Albarado guided Pretty Prolific to a win in the seventh race to move within one win of 4,000 and added a victory aboard Bold Start in the Aristides Stakes (G3) in the tenth race.
A 35-year-old native of Lafayette, Louisiana, Albarado began his career at bush tracks when he was 12. He scored his first professional victory in 1990 at Evangeline Downs on One Little Point.
Albarado won his first $1-million race when he guided eventual Horse of the Year Mineshaft to victory in the 2003 Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1). He was the regular rider of two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, who retired as the all-time leading North American-raced earner with $10,501,800.
A winner of 390 stakes races and 146 graded stakes, Albarado’s mounts have amassed more than $153-million in purse earnings.
Last year, Albarado was the leading rider at the Churchill Downs spring meet and became only the seventh jockey to amass 700 winners at the Louisville track. He has also been the leading rider at Arlington Park, Fair Grounds (six times), Keeneland Race Course (twice), and Oaklawn Park (twice).
Albarado, who maintains residences in both Louisville and New Orleans, is the founder of the Robby Albarado Foundation, a nonprofit organization established to assist the homeless and disadvantaged in the Louisville area.
In 2004, he was the recipient of the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Award, which is voted on by fellow jockeys and honors riders whose careers and personal character reflect positively on themselves and on the sport of Thoroughbred racing.
