Jockey Richard Monterrey

Born: 03/04/1984, Cuidad Bolivar, Venezuela Resides: Laurel, Maryland Family: Jannette, wife

Jockey Richard Monterrey is riding at Oaklawn for the first time. He came tothe United States from his native Venezuela on December 27, 2002.

Monterrey’s first track on these shores was Gulfstream Park, but he soon made his way to the Maryland and Delaware Park circuit where he enjoyed an excellent apprenticeship.

Last summer he rode at Prairie Meadows, so he came to Oaklawn because such trainers as Lynn Chleborad, Kelly Von Hemel, David Whited and Tim Gleason,who used his services in Iowa, planned to race in Arkansas. Such stabl

In a championship series at Prairie Meadows, Monterrey recalls taking part in five of the stakes, “I had two wins, two seconds and a third,” he remembers.

Monterrey mentioned that he came into racing with the philosophy to “ride hard and work hard, doing everything to the best of my ability.”

“There is a saying in Venezuela that I brought to the United Stakes with me,” he mused. “The saying warns in my native language, ‘it is better to be boldly decisive and risk being wrong than to go slow and be right, but too late.’”