Cardenas aiming for 100 wins
Published:Thursday | September 9, 2021 | 12:09 AMRobert Bailey/Gleaner Writer
Jockey Dick Cardenas has set his sights on reaching 100 wins this season and also topping leading rider Anthony Thomas for the Jockeys Championship at Caymanas Park.
Cardenas, who has ridden 40 winners so far this season, signalled his intentions when he rode a five-timer on last weekend’s 11-race card.
Thomas, who is the joint 2020 champion jockey with Dane Nelson, leads the jockey’s championships with 79 winners so far this season.
Cardenas, 36, last won the jockey’s title in 2011, and only returned to ride at Caymanas Park from Panama in April of this year.
“My goal is to win a hundred races this year,” he said. “Anthony Thomas has been working hard, too, and it is hard to beat him because I started out riding so late.
“I am going to try to beat him and I am not giving up, and I will never give up, and no matter how far he is in front, I am still going to try.”
Cardenas was a runner-up to Thomas in the Jockeys’ Championships in the 2018 season. Thomas recorded 96 winners to Cardenas’ 95 to claim the title that year.
FRUITFUL MOVE
On his return to Caymanas Park, Cardenas has since changed his agent from Dwayne Grossett to Donovan Wilson, and he said that this move has been fruitful.
“I have spoken to him already, and I told him that I want to reach a hundred winners this year, and the only thing he said to me is that we have to work harder to get there,” he said.
Cardenas says that he has enjoyed a good relationship with all the trainers at Caymanas Park, and he has been exercising horses for every one in the mornings.
“I am very fit and in good condition right now,” he said. “I have been working a lot of horses in the mornings, rain or no rain.
“The good thing that I have been doing is that I have been working for every trainer. I am not really staying in one place, and I am working for everybody, and I think this is going to help me a lot to reach the hundred.”