Javier Castellano        Birthdate: October 23, 1977        Birthplace: Maracaibo, Venezuela        Residence: Mineola, NY        Family: wife, Abby.

2006 Gulfstream Record

 Career:

• It will be hard to top the year he had in 2006.
• He won the Preakness and Travers aboard Bernardini; finished tied for fourth at Keeneland in the spring and fifth at Gulfstream; took Pine Island to multiple Grade 1 wins and became a father for the first time.
• It was a continuation of the success for the Venezuela native that has seen him linked with the game’s biggest recent stars including 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper and 2005 Kentucky Derby favorite Bellamy Road.
• He began his American career at Calder where he topped the rider standings at the Tropical meet in 1999-’00 and again in 2000-’01.
• He moved his tack to New York and was the leading jockey at Aqueduct’s 2002-’03 innter-track meet.
   
  Other: Followed his late father, Abel, and an uncle into racing in Venezuela in 1996 and was racing in the U.S. by June of 1997, staring off in South Florida. His brother Abel Jr. rides in Delaware and Maryland.