Hello everybody! The start of a new "May-mester" brings along two new interns at the Institute of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies. Our names are Aimee and Megan, and we are thrilled to be contributing to the stellar work of this institute.
More entries will follow this one as we have been reading and watching numerous works we cannot wait to tell you all about. For now, though, we thought we would tell you all about horse race jockey Martin Garcia. Aimee and I were watching television this weekend and caught the Preakness Stakes, the second of three major races for the Triple Crown. As soon as we saw that Garcia had won we decided to research his life and tell people more about this incredible individual.
Martin Garcia was born in Veracruz, Mexico on October 23, 1984. He came to the United States in 2003 and found a job at a delicatessen in Pleasanton, California. The deli's owner, Teri Terry, introduced him to Mark Hanna, a former jockey, who helped him get started in horse racing as a stable hand and exercise rider. Garcia galloped horses for six months before starting to ride in races at Golden Gate Fields. On August 17, 2005, Martin Garcia won his first race aboard Wild Daydreamer at the Bay Meadows Fair.
Garcia got his big break in the earlier part of 2006 by beating jockey Russell Baze for leading jockey at Golden Gate Fields as Baze had dominated that circuit and track.
He relocated to Southern California in April 2006 and made an instant showing, finishing in the top five jockeys for the Hollywood Park Racetrack meet.
On May 15, 2010 Garcia rode Lookin at Lucky in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. The horse was favored to win the Kentucky Derby two weeks prior, but the horse had a difficult race and was shut out of the top five spots almost immediately leaving the gate. Bob Baffert, the owner of Lookin at Lucky, originally had jockey Garrett Gomez race the horse however switched Gomez for Garcia in hopes of ending a streak of bad races. This is Baffert’s fifth Preakness win, but his first Triple Crown event since 2002.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Garcia_%28jockey%29
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/more_sports/2010/05/16/2010-05-
16_trainer__jock_lookin_smart.html?page=1
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