Velazquez's return to Gulfstream leads talented jockey colony

Hall of Fame and champion jockey John Velazquez is returning to what he called his “second home.”

Velazquez, who spent the last two winters riding primarily in California, will return to South Florida to ride at Gulfstream Park’s championship meet, joining the track's competitive and talented riding colony.

The meet, which begins Friday, will play host not only to Velazquez but to Irad Ortiz Jr., leading jockey at the championship meet four of the last five years; five-time leading rider Javier Castellano; three-time leading rider Luis Saez; Tyler Gaffalione; Paco Lopez and several newcomers, including Sean Levey and Oisin Murphy from Europe, Vincent Cheminaud and Chris Emigh. Popular Joe Bravo also is returning after spending several of the last winters in California.

Velazquez, leading rider during the championship meet twice, said returning to South Florida is also a return to a “normal routine.”

“California, obviously, was a different opportunity,” Velazquez said. “The experience was something different. I enjoyed it a lot. I was given a lot of opportunity because guys from the east who go west don’t always get the opportunities I did. It was a good experience, and the people were very good to me, but Gulfstream is my second home after New York.”

Velazquez will begin riding the weekend of Dec. 8. Defending riding champ Irad Ortiz Jr. will begin riding Dec. 6. Jose Ortiz, who will be honored with a bobblehead in his likeness during the championship meet, will begin riding Friday.

Sean Levey arrives from the United Kingdom and will ride December through February.

Levey was born in Swaziland, moved to Ireland as a teenager and apprenticed for about six years with Aidan O’Brien before going to England in 2011.

Levey won his first Group 1 in the 1,000 Guineas in 2018 at Newmarket aboard Billesdon Brook. Levey won two more Group 1 events in 2019 on Billesdon Brook in the Sun Chariot Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on King of Change. In 2022 he won his first Group 1 in France with Aristria in the Prix Jean Romanet at Deauville.

Murphy, a three-time champion in the United Kingdom, is scheduled to ride from late December through January.

Cheminaud first came to the U.S. in 2015 to ride Flintshire, whom he guided to victory in the Sword Dancer (G1) at Saratoga. He returned in 2018 to ride Victorine, who finished fourth in the Sands Point (G2) at Belmont. The 29-year-old French Derby (G1)-winning jockey ventured to Kentucky to ride full time in 2021, winning 41 races. He has won 29 races from 206 mounts this year.

“I ride a lot for Christophe Clement and Shug McGaughey, so I decided to come here,” Cheminaud said.

Chris Emigh is well known in the Midwest, where he’s ridden the last year in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana and has won riding titles at Arlington, Hawthorne and Delta Downs.

Riding at the championship meet has “been on my bucket list for a while but I never got the chance,” said Emigh, a winner of nearly 4,400 races.