NEWS
Jockey Duran posts 1,000th career win
Posted: Saturday, March 13, 2010 3:54 PM
Jockey Francisco Duran guided Karmalize to a front-running nose victory in the sixth race on Friday at Golden Gate Fields to record his 1,000th career win.
Duran sent the three-year-old Globalize gelding, trained by Andrew Wilson, straight to the front in the one-mile maiden special weight race. Karmalize prevailed at the wire in a three-horse blanket finish, completing the distance in 1:39.79 on the synthetic Tapeta Footings surface.
“I’m excited and I’m proud of myself,” Duran said after the milestone victory. “It’s a tough business, and I’m thankful I’ve been able to win so many races.”
Duran, a 32-year-old native of Stockton, California, has been a regular on the Northern California circuit since he took out his jockey’s license in 2001. The following year, he won 202 races and was a finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding apprentice jockey.
The leading rider at the 2002 San Mateo County Fair meeting at Bay Meadows Race Course, he has won stakes races at Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields, and fair meets in Sacramento, Fresno, Vallejo, and Santa Rosa.
