Juarez in the Running for a New Beginning

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL - Nik Juarez is running.

And running.

And running…to what he hopes is a new beginning.

After several years wresting with family issues and moving between the U.S. and Sweden, Juarez is preparing for a new opportunity, reuniting with his former agent Jay Rushing to ride at the upcoming Colonial Downs meet for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

“It feels like a new beginning,” said Juarez, currently riding at Gulfstream Park. “It feels like everything has calmed down.”

Despite his family issues over the past six years, including getting stuck in Sweden for months at a time during Covid and after, Juarez rode at Oaklawn for D. Wayne Lukas in 2024 – including the mount on eventual Preakness (G1) winner Seize the Grey – and rode multiple graded-stakes winner Haulin Ice when she broke her maiden. But Juarez, a winner of more than 1000 races, couldn’t sustain the momentum due to family.

“It is out of sight out of mind,” Juarez said. “I was back-and-forth so much. When you’re not riding you’re sort of forgotten. Which I totally understand.”

It was during this time that Juarez turned to running. Not five, six miles a day. No, Juarez turned to marathon running. In fact, come Saturday, he will run his third marathon. He has also completed a Duathlon recently in Fort Lauderdale, finishing second in his age group, and raised money for the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund by running the 4x4x48 Challenge, running four miles, every four hours for 48 hours.

“I really turned to marathon running during Covid,” Juarez said. “My life was kind of in disarray. I had all this free time; my ex-wife was waiting for her green card and couldn’t come over. That took 23 months. I was back-and-forth seeing the kids.

“On your hardest day as a rider you do your job and there’s no excuses for taking off. I found something that was more than myself, which was my kids. When I came back the only thing that kept me going was running.”

Juarez, a former high school wrestler in Maryland, continued: “Running has taught me a lot. It’s about staying focused, thinking about nutrition, about the importance of staying active. Staying active is huge. We’re always trying to find something different with diet in horse racing, I have definitely applied what I’ve learned from marathon and triathlons to horse racing. It’s a high endurance sport. You can’t eat much but you need to be satisfied.”

“Life is a marathon,” Juarez continued. “In a marathon, you’re going to have some bad miles, and then miles you coast and go with the flow, but there’s going to be tough miles. You just have to be stronger than that. You’ve got to keep going. When the going gets tough, you have to put one foot in front of the other. I know now I can put a foot in front of the other and keep going.”