With a little more than an hour until his first race, jockey John Velazquez is going through some of the day’s early races.
“The colony is very young. They’re all young. I’m the old one,” said Velazquez, with a laugh.
At age 50, the National Museum of Racing Hall of Famer may not be riding in as many races daily as he used to, but Velazquez is still heavily invested.
“Any of the young guys have any questions, I try to help them,” Velazquez said. “To tell you the truth, when we help the young guys and everything through it, it makes it safer.”
While he may be a mentor at times, Velazquez is still a competitor who has that fire. To him, the thrill and power of riding a thoroughbred is still unmatched.
“The feelings that you get, the emotions that you get, the mixed emotions and all that stuff by riding a good horse, it’s definitely special,” Velazquez said.
That is what keeps bringing him back to the track year after year, and sitting at the top of several jockey career standings. The Saratoga all-time wins leader, with five riding titles at the Spa, is now closing in on another milestone: 1,000 wins at Saratoga.
“I’ve never been a guy who puts into these goals and numbers,” Velazquez said. “I want to win races. I concentrate on winning races and do my best for the particular horse that I’m riding for and the people I’m riding for. After that, everything is a gift.”
But still he understands the significance of that mark. Velazquez entered the 2022 Saratoga meet needing 17 wins to reach 1,000. As he continues learning and puttin in the work, that gap is getting smaller.
“From year to year, it has changed. The different trainers, the different jockeys, different horses obviously every other year. Every two years you have different horses,” Velazquez said. “So you learn from all those things.”
For now, his goal is staying healthy.
“I want to concentrate on winning races and hopefully the horses allow to do the things I want to do and connect with me, and after that, we win and the numbers go away,” Velazquez said.