Multiple graded-stakes winner Gear Jockey dies at age 8

Multiple graded-stakes winner Gear Jockey died at age 8 after falling ill while shipping to South Korea to stand stud.

Gear Jockey's death was announced via a post on X by Lyndsay Delello, an assistant to Rusty Arnold, who trained Gear Jockey throughout his career. His death previously was reported by Olivia Newman of BloodHorse, who also reported that he had been slated to stand at stud at Pegasus Farm alongside Air Force Blue and Thunder Moccasin.

Gear Jockey, a Calumet Farm homebred, was a son of Twirling Candy out of the winning Tapit mare Switching Gears. He amassed a 27: 5-2-6 record and over $1.6 million in earnings in a career that ran from 2019 through 2024.

He finished third behind Structor in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf while still a maiden. Both of his graded-stakes wins happened going short on the grass. He won the Kentucky Downs Turf Sprint in 2021 when it was a Grade 3 and again in 2023 when it was a Grade 2.