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Cornelio Velasquez
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Cornelio Velasquez
Birthdate: Sept. 28, 1968
Birthplace: Panama City, Panama
Residence: Pembroke Pines, Fla.
Family: wife, Roxanna; daughters, Stephanie, Connie and Katherine. |
2006 Gulfstream Record
| Mounts |
1st |
2nd |
3rd |
Winning % |
Earnings |
| 501 |
83 |
67 |
82 |
17 |
$1,949,200 |
Career: |
- Charged late in the 2006 season to finish second in the standings with 83 wins, three behind John Velazquez, while leading the colony in mounts with 501 rides.
- He’s finished fourth or better in the standings three straight years.
- Picked up stakes victories in the Bonnie Miss with Teammate and Marshua’s River aboard My Lordship.
- He had a particularly good year with fillies in 2006 winning Grade 1 stakes in the Ashland at Keeneland with Bushfire and the Ogden Phipps at Belmont with Take d’ Tour.
- He also won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes at Arlington and finished sixth in the Kentucky Derby with Showing Up.
- It was the second straight year he won the Secretariat.
- He has won two Breeders’ Cup races with Pleasant Home in the 2005 Distaff and Cajun Beat in 2003 Sprint.
- He registered first Grade 1 stakes on Feb. 16, 2002, aboard Cetewayo in Gulfstream Park Breeders’ Cup Handicap.
- He won his first riding title at Calder and Calder's Tropical meet in 2001 then repeated in 2002 with 169 wins, a number that included a track record dozen stakes.
- That was part of a breakout year when his 332 victories ranked second nationally behind only Russell Baze.
- Moved tack to Kentucky in 2003 and promptly became leading rider at Churchill's 2003 spring meet.
- Some of his top horses besides his Breeders’ Cup winners have included Closing Argument, Trust ‘n Luck, Native Heir, Band Is Passing, Best of the Rest, Cellars Shiraz and The Judge Sez Who.
Other: At age 15, was taken to racetrack by sister, who thought he had the talent to become a jockey. He had previously ridden horses on a farm. After that trip, he enrolled in Panamanian national jockey school which produced such legends as Braulio Baeza, Laffit Pincay Jr. and Jorge Velasquez (no relation). His first winner came in 1985 in Panama aboard Ri Quy. He won three riding titles in Panama (top apprentice in 1985, leading rider in 1994, 1995) during 14-year stint there before coming to U.S. in 1993.
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