Derby promises to be a sweet run for this Rose
Former wrestler a natural as jockey
By Jody Demling
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal
Jockey Jeremy Rose always was the smallest person in his school class. He was so tiny as a youngster there was talk of growth-hormone shots.
But when it came to sports, Rose was big enough to excel.
“I remember being at the doctor’s, and they were asking him all these questions, “said his mother, Cindy Robinson. “The last question was, ‘Don’t you feel bad not getting picked for all the teams until last?’ and he said, ‘No, I’m always the first one picked.’ “
He was a standout in karate, showing quarter horses and wrestling.
So it should come as no shock that Rose, 26, just five years after becoming a jockey, is headed to the Kentucky Derby. The winner of the 2001 Eclipse Award for apprentice jockeys will ride Afleet Alex in the May 7 race at Churchill Downs.
“You couldn’t write it any better, “Rose said. “I know I still have a lot of learning to do. But if you are a jockey, this is where you want to be no matter how long you have been in the game. This is what you work for.”
Rose will make his first start in a Triple Crown race, but he rode Afleet Alex to second place in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and has 49 stakes wins.
“Jeremy is at a stage where some of these other riders were at a few years ago, “said Afleet Alex trainer Tim Ritchey, who helped give Rose his start in the business. “He’s a great kid, and he’s going to another plateau.”
But his career almost never got off the mat — literally.
He started in karate and was an instant hit, earning “trophies out the wazoo, “Robinson said. He also was successful showing quarter horses for six years.
But he really found his niche in wrestling.
When Rose was a sophomore at Bellefonte (Pa.) High School, the wrestling coach prodded him to fill the team’s 103-pound spot. Three years later Rose had a 42-3 record and made it to the state tournament.
“He was a natural, “said Bellefonte coach Larry Walker, an assistant then. “This is one of, if not the, top states in the country for wrestling, but Jeremy just took to the sport. It was very impressive he made it to (state) in three years.”
Rose, who is listed at a generous 5 feet and weighs 110 pounds, was planning to wrestle in college before the NCAA raised its lowest weight level from 118 to 125 pounds. He decided that was too much weight.
At the urging of a family friend, he went to a racetrack for the first time 1999.
Before long he was off to Puerto Rico to break 2-year-olds, and about nine months later he hooked up with Ritchey at Delaware Park.
He’s been on the fast track ever since.
Doing most of his riding at Delaware Park, Rose won his first race — in the fall of 2000 — and won more than $6 million in purses as an apprentice.
He now has 967 career wins with $24.5 million in earnings and recently won the riding title at Oaklawn Park in his first meet there.
But nothing can compare to his experience with Afleet Alex.
“It’s huge, “Rose said. “Down there (at Delaware Park) it’s hard for us to get horses like this. This horse has been the biggest opportunity for me.”
He rode the first seven races of Afleet Alex’s career, including troubled rides in the Champagne Stakes and the Breeders’ Cup.
In early December, Ritchey told Rose he was off the horse for a jockey with Derby experience.
“I totally understood, “Rose said. “I let (Alex) down more times than he let me down.”
Rose rode Afleet Alex during his romp in the Mountain Valley Stakes at Oaklawn on March 5, but one of the nation’s hottest jocks — John Velazquez — was aboard in the Rebel Stakes on March 29 when the colt finished last and had a lung infection.
“It tells you how close we are because we got sick together, “Rose said. “I had the same thing and had to take two days off the week before he got it.”
The two were reunited for the Arkansas Derby.
Velazquez opted to ride Bandini in the Blue Grass Stakes, which he won. So Ritchey gave the call to Rose, who rode Afleet Alex to an eight-length score the same day.
“The lung infection might have been fate’s way of saying that Jeremy needed to ride this horse, “Ritchey said.
Now the budding star is getting the shot of a lifetime in the Derby. He’ll return to Louisville this weekend and ride all of next week to get used to the surface. He might even take a peek into the winner’s circle.
“I’m not going to say he can’t get beat, “Rose said. “But he can beat anybody. He’s extremely dangerous.”
And then he smiled.
“It’ll definitely be easy for you guys to write if I win: ‘A Rose wins the Roses.’ “
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