John Velazquez Birthdate: Nov. 24, 1971 Birthplace: Carolina, Puerto Rico Residence: West Hempstead, N.Y. Family: wife, Leona; daughter, Lerina; son, Michael Patrick.

2009 Gulfstream Record

   Career:

• A chance for Triple Crown glory came and went with the fortunes of Quality Road in 2009, the colt with the fragile feet who, when right, carried him to his first Florida Derby triumph last year

• Future Hall of Famer won back-to-back Eclipse Awards in 2005 and '06

• Achieved his first career Triple Crown win aboard Rags to Riches in the 2007 Belmont Stakes and he won the Breeders’ Cup Turf later that year aboard English Channel.

• Set a record in 2005 with more than $24 million in purses while riding first-call for Todd Pletcher.

• Won the 2007 Fountain of Youth aboard Scat Daddy, and would win that race again in 2009 with Quality Road in 2009.

• He also was aboard when English Channel started his 2007 campaign with a near world record performance in an allowance race here as well as eventual champion older horse Lawyer Ron at the start of his championship campaign.

• His Gulfstream trophies sit on the mantle alongside championships at Keeneland and eight in New York (including the record for wins in a meet at Saratoga in 2004).

• Before his 2007 victory on English Channel, his previous two wins in the 2004 Breeders’ Cup World Championship – Ashado in the Ladies Classic and Speightstown in the Sprint – earned him the Bill Shoemaker Award for the day’s top jockey. It was the second time Velazquez had won two races on a Breeders’ Cup card, the first coming in 2002 with wins in the Juvenile Fillies (Storm Flag Flying) and the Filly and Mare Turf (Starine). Other Breeders’ Cup wins came in the 1998 Mile on Da Hoss and 2000 Juvenile Fillies with Caressing.

• On Sept. 3, 2001, he became first jockey in Saratoga history to ride six winners on a single card, capping the day off with victory in the Diana Handicap on Starine. He won his 3,000th career race on July 29, 2004 at Saratoga on “John Velazquez Bobblehead Doll Day.”

• Other: Entered jockey school in native Puerto Rico in June 1988 and two years later rode first winner at El Commandant on Rodas in 1990. He came to New York in 1990 and was guided by Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr., who is now his agent. He is the son-in-law of trainer Leo O’Brien. He is the president of the Jockeys’ Guild and, together with his wife, helped organize fund-raisers for Guild charities through sales of autographed hats and shirts throughout the Gulfstream meet.