Maldonado an Overnight Sensation in Southern California
By GENE WILLIAMS
Question: How can a jockey spend 10 years plying his trade and then become an overnight sensation?
Answer: Be Edwin Maldonado.
That might be a bit of a stretch, but not by much. In the past year, Maldonado, bearing a name of anything but the household variety, has ridden his way to a Top 10 finish at all of Southern California’s race meets.
Along the way, he unseated perennial Fairplex Park champion Martin Pedroza and finished in a tie with Rafael Bejarano for the most recent and final Betfair Hollywood Park summer meeting. In that regard, Maldonado likes to say, “Bejarano tied me. I was ahead, and he caught up with me.”
He acknowledges that he had a chance to win the title outright in the meet’s final race, but couldn’t get his horse to the winner’s circle.
The native of Columbus, Ohio, who grew up in his family’s native Puerto Rico, is in his fourth year riding in Southern California, his longtime dream racing venue. “When I was riding in Texas and Louisiana,” the 30-year-old rider said, “I always knew that I wanted to get to California to ride. I always wanted to prove myself. I never said to myself ‘that’s too tough for me.’ I always wanted to prove that I could do it.”
There’s no ring of ego or arrogance in those words, just a quiet confidence.
He’s been around horses most of his life, thanks mostly to his uncle, Manuel Alicea, a jockey and his mother’s brother. In his teen years he joined his uncle in Minnesota during a high school summer vacation to begin to learn from the ground up as a hotwalker. After returning home to Puerto Rico to finish his schooling, he rejoined his uncle the next year (2000) and worked as a groom before moving up to galloping horses.
Maldonado and his uncle moved on to Texas before heading to Winnipeg, Canada, for a five-month race meet at Assiniboia Downs. While there, he became a licensed jockey and won his first race as a professional.
Back to Texas the pair went with Maldonado beginning his riding career in earnest as an apprentice, covering the circuit from 2002-2004 before moving on to Louisiana where he rode at Delta Downs and Evangeline Downs from 2004 until 2010.
That’s when he made the big move west where he made his Southern California debut at Fairplex Park. To say he wasn’t an immediate hit is an understatement of some stature, but his self-confidence and the connection with veteran jockey agent Vic Lipton kept the ball rolling until a chance to prove himself began to take shape.
The first breakthrough came during the 2012 Del Mar season where he wound up fourth, with 24 victories, in the final jockey standings. He carried that momentum over to the Fairplex season where he unseated longtime champion and all-time win leader Pedroza. He beat him on the square, too – 26 wins to 19 during the 13-day session. After a solid Santa Anita meeting (62 winners, second best at the stand), Maldonado racked up his second riding title by topping the standings at Betfair Hollywood Park’s fall campaign, 25 first to Rafael Bejarano’s 24.
What has made the difference in Maldonado’s performance in recent times? “I think it’s because I never give up. I’ve had my ups and downs and could have said ‘I quit, I want to go back,’ but I made the decision to stay,” said Maldonado, and his persistence has paid off.
“I couldn’t have done it without Vic,” he said. “He was always there in good times and in bad, always being positive at all times.” The rider gives Lipton credit for introducing him to “The Secret,” a how-to program on the power of positive thinking. Of the program, Maldonado says, “It reminds you to stay positive. If you keep your mind positive, open to only good things, pretty soon you begin to see the good things.”
The way his mounts have been winning, one has to wonder just what he brings to his equine partner as they travel through a race. Of that, he says, “I bring 100 percent of me – and faith. When you get on a horse, anything is possible. If you go out there thinking your horse doesn’t have much of a chance to win and he does run well and maybe finishes third, then you have to think maybe I should have tried harder.” So he works hard to keep a positive mindset.
Through the first 11 days of the current Del Mar meet, Maldonado has once again made his mark. He’s ridden nine winners to go with four seconds and five thirds in 66 mounts and sits in fourth place in the jockey standings.
As for what he’s learned in his time on the circuit, he said, “I’ve learned more here than what I learned in all my other time.” He credits the quality of the horses he’s ridden and the super-competitive atmosphere among his riding colleagues for much of that. “All the riders have tried to help me, especially Mike Smith. He’s a great rider, a great guy and a great teacher.”
In addition, he gives appreciative nods to a number of trainers, notably Jack Van Berg, Jeff Mullins and Jeff Bonde, all of whom gave him a big boost in his early days in Southern California. He’s particularly appreciative of Bonde, saying, “You can’t expect to ride a horse just because you work a horse for a trainer. You have lots of riders here who have been around here a long time. What you have to do is to work the horse and hope to ride later.
“If you don’t ride the horse, you can’t get mad because that’s how it goes. Jeff gave me the opportunity to work his horses and then ride them. He put me on a lot of good horses and we did well.” Included is the one that carried him to his first graded stakes victory, Izzy Rules in Santa Anita’s Las Flores Stakes.
This is what Bonde says about Maldonado: “He’s this era’s Bobby Gonzalez (harking back to the veteran Northern California rider). He’s great in the gate and he’s a strong finisher. And he always knows where he is in a race.”
Other big winners for the rising rider include Comma to the Top and Reneesgotzip, both for Peter Miller. Maldonado rides most frequently for Bonde, Miller and John Sadler, but has expanded his list of top trainers for whom he rides to include Richard Mandela, Mike Puype, Craig Dollase and Adam Kitchingman.