Cordero a Major Influence in Torres’ Dramatic Rise

When someone is honored for a remarkable career achievement, they often stand at the podium with trophy in hand and thank everyone who helped along their path to success. For jockey Jaime Torres, his ascent from inexperienced exercise rider to Preakness Stakes (G1) winner would be shocking to most. That is, until you peek behind the curtain and see the mentors who have guided the 25-year-old Puerto Rican.

You don’t need to search long to find Angel Cordero Jr.’s name in the Thoroughbred racing record books. A Hall of Famer and two-time Eclipse Award winner for Outstanding Jockey, Cordero is one of only 10 riders to surpass 7,000 wins. Among these wins were six Triple Crown races, four Breeders’ Cup races, and countless grade 1 victories aboard some of the sport’s greatest champions. In a career that spanned from 1960-1995, Cordero’s mounts earned more than $164.5 million.

What is not as easily seen while turning the pages of those record books is the influence Cordero continues to have on the game in his retirement. Cordero, 81, has taken over the role of mentor, passing his expertise on to the next generations of jockeys coming from his native Puerto Rico. The most recent of those young riders is Torres.

“I’m proud of Jaime. He’s accomplished a lot and he’s been through a lot,” Cordero said. “He’s a good person, a good learner, and a good rider. So proud of him and what he has accomplished in two years—more than most of these guys that came from Puerto Rico have accomplished.”

Torres’ path to becoming a jockey was not conventional. After watching races on television in 2019, Torres was amazed and decided to attend live racing the following day at Camarero Race Track in Puerto Rico. It was then he decided he wanted to become a jockey.

Enrolling in Puerto Rico’s jockey school, Torres was pushed toward the path of an exercise rider. Moving to Florida to begin his career, he started galloping horses for Saffie Joseph Jr. at Gulfstream Park, which led him to meet Pichy Garcias. Garcias became an agent after retiring from riding in the early 1990s. He and jockey Jeffrey Sanchez won the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) with Awesome Feather . Once he retired from being an agent, he became the “colors man” in the Gulfstream jockeys’ room, keeping track of all the silks.

“(Torres) came to the jockeys’ room at Gulfstream Park every Tuesday for one year and I taught him,” Garcias said.

Garcias was impressed with Torres’ motivation and work ethic. As their relationship grew, Garcias learned that Torres had been living out of his car since moving to the United States. Garcias gave Torres his address and told him to come live with him.

“He told me, ‘I live in my car.’ I started crying,” Garcias said. “From that day, Jaime was the best kid that I taught in my life. He’s quiet, humble, he works hard, and look at where he is now.

“I’m so proud of him, I have four kids—three boys and one girl—but Jaime is like my son.”

Garcias emphasized to Torres the importance of staying focused on his family and career. Seeing Torres’ ability to listen and blossoming riding skills, Garcias contacted a close friend of his, Cordero.

“He called me and told me he had a kid that he’d been helping,” Cordero said. “He showed me a picture of him and I said that’s a big kid and he said, “Yeah, but you should see him on the Equicizer.”

Torres rode his first race at Gulfstream Aug. 12, 2022, and picked up his first winner about a month later. It was around this time that Garcias reached out to Cordero about moving Torres to New York.

“He called me and said, ‘I think I’m going to send him to New York,’ ” Cordero recalled. “I said, ‘You think he’s ready to come to New York?’ He said, ‘Yeah, he’s hanging in there with these guys, he will be good there.’ “

In November, Torres traveled to New York for Cordero’s birthday and met the legendary jockey in person for the first time. The two immediately connected and, by January, Torres was moving his tack to New York.

“(Cordero) is the kindest person I ever met,” Torres said. “He’s so nice, he treats me like a son.”

Cordero gave the young apprentice rider a place to stay and even cooked for him.

“Anything I need, he was there for me,” Torres said. “Before I moved to the United States, I knew who he was. I was like ‘One day I’m going to meet him.’ Now, not just that I met him, I lived with him. It’s crazy.”

Torres continued to learn with Cordero and perfect his riding. With two Equicizers in his house, one of which has a heavier head, Cordero would often instruct Torres into a position before leaving him in that position for long periods of time.

“He’d come back and be like, ‘You doing good? Oh, you look like you’re blowing. Keep going until you can’t do anymore,’ ” Torres said.

“He’s very serious with what he does,” Cordero said. “He’s out every morning, he’s a learner. When you tell him he did something wrong, he doesn’t give any excuse.

“That makes him different from the other guys. It takes them a long time to get wherever they want to be. (Jaime’s ascent was) very quick, quicker than any other rider that I see here.”

The strength and skill conditioning paid off. With Cordero as his New York agent, Torres ended 2023 as the leading apprentice on the New York Racing Association circuit, winning 37 races and accumulating purse earnings of $2.6 million.

It was also through Cordero that Torres was introduced to Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas. Cordero managed to book a mount with Lukas aboard a longshot Arrogate 2-year-old for a July 29 maiden race at Saratoga Race Course. The horse’s name was Seize the Grey .

Now represented by agent Liz Morris, Torres has reached the pinnacle of the sport. He reunited with that longshot maiden Seize the Grey to reach a pair of milestones, his first graded stakes victory in the May 4 Pat Day Mile (G2) at Churchill Downs, and his first grade 1 victory in the Preakness.

“He finally got to where he wanted to be,” Cordero said. “Everybody knows him now and everybody asks for him.”

With all his success, Torres still makes sure to share it with those who got him there. After the Preakness, Torres called Cordero from Lukas’ barn and put him on speaker so that Cordero and Lukas could talk. Forty-four years earlier, Cordero and Lukas won the Preakness with Codex. 

“When I have a really big race, he congratulates me all the time,” Torres said. “We still have a really good relationship.”

Now, Torres and Seize the Grey return to New York and face the daunting challenge of the Belmont Stakes (G1) at Saratoga June 8. Should he need any advice, Cordero would be the perfect person to ask. Not only did Cordero win the Belmont with Bold Forbes in 1976 at Belmont Park, but he was known as the “King of Saratoga,” winning 14 riding titles at the historic venue.

“I remember I rode a horse (Bold Forbes) that didn’t want to go the (1 1/2-mile) distance,” Cordero said of his Belmont victory. “He happened to win. That’s a good feeling knowing that you accomplished something that was very difficult.

“My advice is to go and win it. (Torres) rode a beautiful race (in the Preakness). The Belmont is not an easy race to ride because of the distance, but now it’s a little shorter (1 1/4 miles due to the temporary relocation from Belmont Park). That could help his horse, maybe he might not want to go a mile and a half, but maybe he can hold a mile and a quarter.”

Torres feels confident about Seize the Grey’s Belmont chances and hopes to reconnect with Cordero at Saratoga.

Should Torres win, it won’t be the first time that Cordero has mentored a Belmont Stakes-winning jockey. Cordero famously was the longtime agent for Hall of Famer John Velazquez, a friend who won the Belmont in 2007 with Rags to Riches  and in 2012 with Union Rags  . Cordero was also the agent for Manny Franco when he won the Belmont in 2020 with Tiz the Law  . In addition, Cordero has become close friends with the Ortiz brothers, Irad and Jose, who each has won the Belmont. Like Torres, all these riders are from Puerto Rico.