Paco Lopez a young rider only getting better

Not yet 30 – but riding since age 12 – with a face that could pass as a teenager and a 9 to 5 smile, five foot, 113 pound Paco Lopez is becoming an elite jockey on the racing circuit and hard to beat at Monmouth Park. In his eight years riding thoroughbreds, Lopez has had nearly 9000 starts winning 1600 races with his horses earning $51 million. A multiple graded stakes race winning rider, Lopez was the 2008 Eclipse winner as the top apprentice jockey.
The numbers really tell the story. In 2014 Lopez was the 5th leading US jockey in wins and 14th in earnings. Five months into the 2015 racing season, Lopez career numbers show that he has finished in the money in about half his races and he wins about once every six attempts. Even if you’re not a bettor, if you are at the track and see Paco Lopez riding, bet him! Racing primarily at Gulfstream in Florida during the winter and Monmouth Park during the summer, Lopez won Monmouth’s riding title in 2013 with 99 wins and in 2014 with a record 120 wins. He rode more than double the winners of his closest competitor last season. And on two days during he meet, he rode seven winners. “It’s amazing for such a young rider,” Cory Moran says, “and I am not sure anything like that has ever been done before.”

Lopez started 2015 at Monmouth the way he ended 2014. During the first two weekends of racing he has won and finished in the money in multiple races. During his relatively short career, Lopez has been the leading rider at Calder and twice at Gulfstream in Florida as well as Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands. Last August he won for four stakes races at Saratoga including the Grade One Woodward aboard Itsmyluckyday. With only two or three days of racing each week at Monmouth during the 2015 season, Lopez also will ride at New York, Pennsylvania or Delaware tracks. Moran keeps the “books” listing the races at all the area tracks plus the listing of all major stakes races. His cell phone never seems to stop ringing as he talks to trainers about possible rides (calls) for his jockeys.

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“What makes Paco different.” Moran says. “is he has a natural ‘feel’ for the horse immediately when he gets aboard and can get a horse comfortable when the gate opens. He doesn’t go against the horses running style and horses run so well for him. Each horse’s style is different and Lopez seems to find it.” Moran and many others knowledgeable in the thoroughbred world feel Lopez is riding toward the classics such as the Triple Crown races. He has ridden in the Breeders Cup Classic and was third in its Dirt Mile with Pants on Fire in 2014.To move to the next level, Lopez may have to move to New York to be closer to the action but, for now, he seems very happy at the Jersey Shore and in Florida. Lopez recently purchased a home close to Monmouth Park and as soon as the school year ends in Florida, he will have his wife and five year old son in residence. “I’m looking forward to that,” he smiles.

Moran represents two jockeys this season with one of Monmouth’s all time favorite riders Joe Bravo also under his care. Usually a jockey’s rep will manage an experienced and an apprentice rider but this season, Moran has two of the most experienced riders and keeps busy finding quality rides for both. Moran has served as Lopez’s agent since day one. “I have to give a special thanks to trainer Bill White who was training horses at Calder at the time, ” Moran says. “Paco was riding quarter horses and galloping thoroughbreds in Florida in 2007 when Bill called me to meet Paco at his barn. He had me watch a race replay of Lopez outwitting his journeyman jockey. White told me that Lopez really was not an apprentice rider at all but had the skills of any journeyman rider. I totally agreed and partnered with Paco immediately”
Moran says. “And the rest is history.”

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Jockeys are paid a percentage of the purses they earn and share a percentage with their rep. It makes a rider’s total earnings key to their income. For Lopez, however, it’s all about winning. “Yes, he says, I want to win every time I get on a horse. I’m not happy when I finish second.” Many jockeys will ride two or three races in a day and are done. For Lopez, if Moran had a mount for him in every Monmouth race, it would be fine. “It’d keep my valet in the jockey’s quarters busy,” he smiles, “getting my silks ready but I’d love it.

Moran is no stranger to the world of thoroughbreds. His father was a successful Ohio trainer and his brother Mike Moran was a top jockey in the mid-West. Moran has assisted his dad, broke and galloped horses for many top trainers and now, besides being a rep, he is a successful bloodstock agent selling thoroughbred horses to a diverse clientele of trainers. Moran works closely with trainers at multiple tracks to secure rides for Lopez and Bravo. He does business with the leaders in the industry including trainers Todd Pletcher, Chad Brown and Christopher Clement.
Moran has a special rapport with a few local Monmouth Park trainers including Kelly Breen and Ed Plesa and is grateful for their support.

“It’s all about giving the rider an opportunity’ to win,” Moran says. “He’s not exercising a horse, he’s on it to win for the owner, trainer and himself.” And for the last few years, one the best in that category has been Paco Lopez, a gentleman with a fierce competitive drive to be the best.

– Story and Photos by Art Petrosemolo