Leading jockey at Fair Grounds, Hernandez looks to keep rolling

Colby Hernandez knew the time was right to make a move. It was 2020, the COVID pandemic was in full swing, and many of the tracks the jockey previously was riding at had shut down.

As he watched racing at home in Louisiana, he received word that Churchill Downs was set to reopen, and he took action.

“I said ‘well, I have enough business I think, I can go try that there,’” Hernandez told Horse Racing Nation. “I made the move and it was the greatest move I could have ever made.”

The move thrilled at least one of the trainers who regularly used Hernandez, Michelle Lovell. It was aboard Lovell’s Change of Control that the 31-year-old jockey earned his first graded stakes win in the Intercontinental (G3) at Belmont Park.

Lovell, who is based in Kentucky and winters at Fair Grounds, had been trying to convince Hernandez to come to the Bluegrass state.

“I was really happy that he (moved),” Lovell said. “I had asked for, I think two years prior, if he was going to… it took him a couple of years but I”thought that he was definitely capable to ride in Kentucky full time.

Hernandez has since purchased a home in Kentucky and made the move permanent. He rides the Kentucky circuit and spends his winters down in New Orleans at Fair Grounds.

With the meet at Fair Grounds in full swing, Hernandez led the jockey standings by six races before Friday’s card, with 25 victories and an 17 percent win rate. He entered the meet off the best year of his career in 2021, when he won 121 races and earned over $6 million.

The jockey pointed to retaining rides on some of the horses from his Kentucky move as one of the reasons for his success in New Orleans.

“Being around, building relationships,” Hernandez said. “Last year was the first time in Kentucky, and then going from Kentucky to Fair Grounds, I keep the better horses.”

The jockey, who regularly rides for Lovell, as well as Al Stall Jr. among others, will look to stay hot this weekend at Fair Grounds, when he has 26 entries spread from Thursday through Monday. He said his strategy for riding at the track is fairly simple.

“You always want to break, put them in a good spot early,” Hernandez said. “Put them in a good spot early and run from there.”

Hernandez comes from a family full of riders. His older brother Brian is a regular on the Kentucky circuit and also rides at Fair Grounds.

His father, Brian Sr. was a full time jockey, and his sister Courtney has also ridden. Colby Hernadez, who grew up admiring the likes of Pat Day and Jerry Bailey, said riding in races was always his dream.

“Just growing up being around it, that’s pretty much all you know,” Hernandez said.

He took out his jockey license in 2006 and began riding regularly around Louisiana. He frequented Fair Grounds, as well as Evangeline Downs and the state’s other tracks.

He said those years helped him gain the knowledge he needed to find his current success.

“You improve a lot over the years,” Hernandez said “Especially whenever you start getting the better horses. You run smarter races, it just improves you from there.”

Lovell has used Hernandez for several years and said her first impressions of him were of a quiet, young jockey was already an excellent rider. Hernandez is the regular rider of both Change of Control and her other top stakes horse, Just Might.

Hernandez had a way with horses, one that she said gave him a chance, even aboard the most temperamental runners.

“I think he just goes with the flow,” Lovell said. “Like, if they’ve had any bad habits in the past, he goes and gives them a chance to run well for him. I think that’s a really good trait in a jockey.”

With a strong entry to Kentucky under his belt, Hernandez said he will now look to build off that to try and enter the top echelon of jockeys. He’ll try to start achieving that goal this year.

“Just want to try and win some of the big races,” Hernandez said of his to-do list for 2022. “Just have an even better year than last year.”

He said that could begin with staying on top of the jockey standings in New Orleans.

“Right now we’re cruising along,” Hernandez said. “I’m the leading rider right now, maybe that’s a goal, to keep that, be leading rider for the meet.”