After 13 years, jockey Santana moves to different agent
Jockey Ricardo Santana Jr. will be represented by agent Jimmy Riccio at the upcoming Churchill Downs meet, Riccio announced Tuesday on social media.
This will be Santana's first change of agents since he came to the U.S. in 2009. Santana's previous agent Ruben Muñoz, who encouraged him to relocate from Panamá, had represented him for the entirety of his American riding career.
Riccio announced his upcoming representation of Santana on Tuesday via a Tweet. He told Horse Racing Nation that he was "excited and appreciative" to have the books of both Santana and Kendrick Carmouche.
When asked how the relationship with Santana came to be, he responded, "I consider myself a pretty good agent. I had Jose Ortiz for 9 1/2 years, got fired from that. ... Ricardo and Kendrick, who I both represent, wanted to work with me. I'm in good standing with trainers, I do my job with passion, I've had success."
Riccio also said he hoped to represent Santana past the Churchill Downs meet should September go well.
Muñoz had not responded to text and voice messages from HRN on Tuesday. His Twitter profile had been changed to read, "Former jockey agent for (Santana)" followed by a prayer emoji and the phrase, "Enjoying 'me' time."
Santana had a career year in the saddle in 2021. Although his highs in starts (1,103) and wins (190) came in 2019, he had his best year of earnings in 2021 with $16,882,132. He won nine Grade 1 races in the U.S. last year, all but one for trainer Steve Asmussen. The lone exception was Maracuja, whom he rode to victory in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) for Rob Atras.
However, Asmussen stopped riding Santana first-call last autumn. Santana has won just one graded race thus far in 2022. He rode Lady Rocket to victory in the Chicago Stakes (G3) for Brad Cox on June 25. So far Santana is 603: 95-93-76 on the year with $8,101,952 in earnings, on track for his least productive year since 2017.
Santana did ride one flashy juvenile winner for Asmussen at Saratoga: Echo Again, who romped in an Aug. 20 maiden special weight. Santana picked up the mount the day of the race from Joel Rosario, who was too ill to ride. Echo Again has not yet run back since that effort.