Jockey Evin Roman is peaking right now and it couldn’t be a better time with the Del Mar meeting on the horizon.
Roman is an apprentice rider, also known as a bug boy. Apprentice riders get a 5-pound head start across the board until they reach a certain win count. In California, the rules are pretty much the same as other jurisdictions.
An apprentice jockey in California is a race rider who has ridden less than 40 winners or less than two years since first having been licensed in any racing jurisdiction. He then must otherwise meet the license qualifications of a jockey. The apprenticeship of an apprentice jockey shall automatically end one year from the date of his or her fifth winning ride, or on the date of his or her 40th winning ride, whichever comes later.
There have been some exciting jockeys to watch over the decades that were exceptional apprentices and it looks like we have another one in jockey Evin Roman. He did something at the recently-concluded Santa Anita meeting that had not been done in almost 70 years.
Roman became the first apprentice jockey since Gordon Glisson in 1949 to capture a Santa Anita riding title. Romans did it with flare and drama and the bug boy had to be benched three separate times for riding infractions in during the meeting.
Romans had to share the riding title honors with Flavien Prat. They each had 41 winners and they were the only riders in the colony to get to the 40-win mark.
Roman recently turned 19 and one of his best assets besides his work ethic and his innate talent is his agent, Tony Matos.
Matos is one of the most famous agents the game has ever scene. He has been in the sport for over five decades and has handled riding legends like Angel Cordero, Kent Desormeaux, Laffit Pincay Jr., Corey Nakatani, Pat Valenzuela and Victor Espinoza. Matos worked with Eclipse Award winning apprentices Frankie Lovato Jr. in 1980 and also booked mounts for Christian Santiago Reyes in 2009.
A good agent knows most of the horses at the meeting and he keeps tabs on the progress of every stable. The bible of a good agent is the condition book, which comes out every two weeks or so and is authored by the racing secretary. It lists the conditions for every race that will be run during a particular period and knowing the conditions is mandatory.
Matos was looking for apprentice riders from the Escuela Vocacional Hipica. This is a Puerto Rico’s jockey school that has produced some current stars including the New York-based Ortiz brothers. With the help of Puerto Rican horse racing journalist and television commentator Joe Bruno, Matos looked at a handful of young riders looking to make the jump to the United States.
Jockey Evin Roman impressed him: Matos: “I liked the way Evin looked on a horse, so I called him. He was going to go somewhere else, but I talked him into coming to California. I wasn’t even dreaming of being close to leading rider. It just happened. He’s riding for everybody. You can see, he rides almost every race. He’s very talented, he’s very good out of the gate and it is a privilege to be leading rider at Santa Anita. I’m very excited to have a rider with this much ability at his age. He’s got a lot of upside.”
One reason the upside is so great is because of the trainers Roman has impressed. One of those trainers is Hall of Fame conditioner Jerry Hollendorfer. He started using the teen on live mounts earlier in the spring. Before one could say Donald Trump, Roman picked up calls from potent stables like Peter Miller’s and John Sadler’s and even rode a few times for Bob Baffert, who rarely uses apprentice jockeys.
Timing is everything in horseracing and in life and another reason Roman is one of the jockeys to watch is that he figures to have a potent Los Alamitos meeting and that will just give him more ammunition to continue at Del Mar.
That seaside track has been kind to apprentice riders over the decades and owners like to rider hot riders. Roman will fit that bill and the agent is ready, Matos: “I have a lot of business lined up at Del Mar. We just have to keep everybody happy because we need everybody. We’ve won a lot of races for small stables. I hate to say one name and not the other, because there were so many people that went to help us.”
One of the break-through efforts for Roman came for Hollendorfer. Jockey Evin Roman recorded his first career stakes win for Hollendorfer when the runner Street Surrender scored in the $75,000 Southern Truce Stakes. Earlier in the year Street Surrender was a game second in the Golden Poppy Stakes.
Street Surrender is a player. She has won six of her fifteen starts and is well on her way to repaying her $280,000 purchase price. She is bred to be a star as her non-winning dam is a sibling to a pair of Graded winners. Her dam also dropped stakes winner and near $350,000 earner Golden Country.
Let’s take a look at the Los Alamitos card for this Friday, July 14, and examine some of the Roman mounts.
Roman will break from the rail in the fifth race with Steve Miyadi’s first-time starter Isee It in Hiseyes. This is a $40,000 maiden claimer trying to graduate at five and a half furlongs. Although the pedigree is modest, Isee It in Hiseyes’ dam is a sibling to a pair of over $100,000 earners.
Roman will next be aboard Stoney’s Mr Cruiser in a $25,000 claimer. This colt has valid speed and could show more with the blinkers added to the equation for this race.
Those that like class droppers have a vehicle with the Roman mount in the seventh race. Terzetto was consistent in his native Brazil but now drops out of the sky into a career soft spot. He is trained by Sadler, one of the most respected conditioners on the circuit in California.
Barring a mishap, expect jockey Evin Roman to enter the Del Mar season loaded for bear. There will be plenty of opportunities in claimers and maiden claimers and owners always like to get a little 5-pound break in the weights for those events.
One could do much worse, than following jockey Evin Roman into the winner’s circle.
