One of the hardest decisions for a jockey to make is to retire unwillingly due to an injury at the prime of their career. Ramon Dominguez is a legendary jockey from Venezuela that had to make this difficult decision after he had already accomplished so much in his 17 years of racing, but his love of horse racing is such that he was able to pick himself up after the accident and he has continued to contribute to the horseracing industry in many ways.
A talented and determined jockey, Dominguez was a force to be reckoned with on the track, and during his career he won 4,985 races, including 160 graded stakes races. He won the Breeders’ Cup in three separate years (2004, 2011, and 1012) and has won six races in a single day on four separate occasions. He set a new record for single-season earnings by a jockey in 2012 when his mounts brought in $25,582,252, and his total purse earnings are a whopping $191,620,277. He earned three consecutive Eclipse Awards as the top rider in North America (2010, 2011, and 2012), and he was also the champion jockey in earnings for three consecutive years from 2010 through 2012. On his home circuit in New York, he was the leading rider for four consecutive years (2009 to 2012). In 2012, Dominguez set the track record at Saratoga for the most wins in a single meet with 68 wins.
Dominguez is also known for his class, humility, and professionalism. He was recognized for his excellent conduct by his peers with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award from Santa Anita Park in 2012. After Dominguez retired in 2013, he became the first Venezuelan in history to be inducted into the prestigious National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame. He also joined Delaware Park Wall of Fame colleagues Chris McCarron, William Hartack, Eldon Nelson, William Shoemaker, Eddie Arcaro, and Angel Cordero Jr. In 2017, Dominguez earned a Red Jacket when he was inducted into the Saratoga Walk of Fame. Jerry Bailey, Angel Cordero Jr., and John Velazquez are the only other former jockeys to receive this award.
Post-retirement, Dominguez has stayed active in horse racing in several ways. He invented the 360 Gentle Touch riding crop that is considered to be much safer on horses and is now widely used in horse racing. He was the president of the New York Race Track Chaplaincy and a part of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF). Dominguez is an ambassador for the international equine welfare charity Brooke USA, and also has a Spanish YouTube channel on horse racing called Exacta Box.
Demographic Profile
- Demographic Profile
- Born: November 24, 1976 (age 45)
- Place of Birth: Caracas, Venezuela
- Residence: New York
- Nationality: Venezuela
- Height: 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)
- Weight: 112 pounds (50.8 kg)
Racing Career
Mounts | 21,267 |
Earnings | $191,620,277 |
Wins | 4,985 |
Debuted | 1994 |
Retired | 2013 due to a spill |
First Win | 1995 |
First US Win | March 1996 at Hialeah |
Major Races
- Hirsch Jacobs Stakes (2002, 2003, 2004)
- Sword Dancer Invitational (2004)
- Wood Memorial Stakes (2004)
- United Nations Handicap (2005)
- Man O’ War Stakes (2005, 2009, 2010)
- Louisiana Derby (2005)
- Pimlico Special (2006)
- Sky Classic Stakes (2006)
- Gallant Fox Handicap (2006)
- Oceanport Stakes (2006)
- Toboggan Handicap (2007, 2011)
- Gotham Stakes (2007, 2011, 2012)
- Manhattan Handicap (2007, 2012)
- Clark Handicap (2007)
- Damon Runyon Stakes (2007, 2008, 2009)
- Bourbon Stakes (2007)
- Busanda Stakes (2008, 2011)
- Victory Ride Stakes (2008)
- Beldame Stakes (2007, 2008, 2011)
- Remsen Stakes (2008, 2012)
- Matriarch Stakes (2008)
- Hollywood Derby (2008)
- Frank E. Kilroe Mile Handicap (2009)
- Shuvee Handicap (2009)
- True North Handicap (2009)
- Ogden Phipps Handicap (2009)
- Arlington Million (2009, 2012)
- Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (2009)
- Sleepy Hollow Stakes (2009, 2010)
- Empire Classic Handicap (2009, 2011)
- Suburban Handicap (2010)
- Hopeful Stakes (2010)
- Garden City Stakes (2010, 2012)
- Jockey Club Gold Cup (2010)
- Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes (2010, 2011)
- Tom Fool Handicap (2011)
- Apple Blossom Handicap (2011)
- Turf Classic Stakes (2011)
- Woody Stephens Stakes (2011)
- Peter Pan Stakes (2011)
- Beverly D. Stakes (2011)
- Woodward Stakes (2011)
- Spinaway Stakes (2011)
- Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes (2011)
- Spinster Stakes (2011)
- Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap (2012)
- Gulfstream Park Handicap (2012)
- Sunshine Millions Classic (2012)
- Just A Game Stakes (2012)
- Brooklyn Handicap (2012)
- Sheepshead Bay Handicap (2012)
- Jim Dandy Stakes (2012)
- Ballston Spa Handicap (2012)
- Travers Stakes (2012)
- Nearctic Stakes (2012)
- Cigar Mile Handicap (2012)
- Gazelle Stakes (2012)
- Classics & Breeders’ Cup
- Breeders’ Cup Turf (2004, 2012)
- Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (2011)
Historical Achievements, Honors Received, Recognitions
2001
- United States Champion Jockey by wins
2003
- United States Champion Jockey by wins
2004
- Isaac Murphy Award
2009
- NYRA Wins Leader
2010
- Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey
- North America’s leading rider in earnings
- NYRA Wins Leader
2011
- Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey
- North America’s leading rider in earnings
- NYRA Wins Leader
2012
- Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey
- North America’s leading rider in earnings
- NYRA Wins Leader
- George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award
2013
- Mike Venezia Award
2016
- National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame inductee
2017
- Earned the Red Jacket as Members of the Walk of Fame in Saratoga. Jerry Bailey, Angel Cordero Jr., and John Velazquez are the only other former jockeys to receive the award.
Characteristics
Dominguez is known for his immense patience when riding, reflected in his signature style of pushing and driving in the final furlongs. Never a picky rider, Dominguez would ride every race he could and took them all equally seriously. H. Graham Motion, the trainer of Better Talk Now, was an early supporter of Dominguez and said that he had the ability to calm a horse. Motion would frequently give Dominguez his most unruly mounts, most notably Better Talk Now. Better Talk Now was known as a headstrong gelding, but Dominguez was able to make him respond to his patient handling, and their rapport led to a memorable career. Together, they won the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf, more than $4.3 million, and five Grade I races.
Off the track, Dominguez is known for his humble attitude and calm, amiable demeanor. A consummate professional, he has a good reputation with his fellow jockeys and others working on the backside. Success never changed Dominguez and he has never been one to show off his wealth – he still drives a 2006 Honda Civic.
Plaque
Dominguez was honored with a plaque during the Red Jacket Ceremony in Saratoga on August 25, 2017. He also received the emblematic Saratoga red jacket during this ceremony. The plaque would later be installed in the Saratoga Walk of Fame.
Personal Life
Ramon Dominguez was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1976. His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father managed an off-track betting parlor in Caracas that was their family business for two generations. His father would bring him to their betting parlor to help out on the weekends, and they would bring the betting machines to La Rinconada race track to take out the money. Dominguez watched his first live race there when he was 13 and became determined to become a jockey.
His parents disapproved of his career choice at first, as their family had no history of horsemanship, but they allowed him to take show jumping lessons near their home instead as a compromise. After some lessons, Dominguez started participating in show jumping competitions. One fateful evening after a competition, he was riding the bus home and encountered a young man who was wearing a jockey helmet and struck up a conversation. He learned of a horse racing training center nearby and started to skip his show jumping lessons to secretly go to the training center instead. His parents discovered what he was doing after a few times, but surprisingly, they weren’t as unhappy with him as he expected, and they eventually agreed to allow him to learn how to ride racehorses at La Rinconada riding school.
The riding school closed while he was learning to ride, so Dominguez accepted an apprenticeship at two rough-riding bush tracks outside the city limits. When he wasn’t grooming horses, he stayed in dirty tack rooms without showers or bathrooms, sometimes sleeping on the floor. It was especially challenging because it was the first time being away from his parents, but he still enjoyed the whole learning experience. Dominguez rode his first race in 1994 on an unpopular track before moving to a different track in 1995, where he won 53 races that year. Encouraged, he emigrated to the US in 1996 and won his first race in the country at Hialeah in March. In 2000, he started riding for trainer H. Graham Motion and his career took off like a rocket: he became the winningest jockey in the United States in 2001 and fame soon followed.
Dominguez met his future wife Sharon, a former exercise rider, at Delaware Park and they were married in 2001. They have a shared love of horses, and had two children together, Alex and Matthew. They now reside in Saratoga Springs, but the family traveled wherever Dominguez’s career took him before settling down in New York. They lived in Delaware when Dominguez rode at Delaware Park, then they moved to Maryland to be near Laurel Park, then to a farm near the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, and then to Floral Park on Long Island, New York. Finally, after Dominguez retired, they moved to Saratoga Springs.
Triple Six Races in A Day
One of Ramon Dominguez’s most impressive achievements is that he was able to win six races in a single day on three different occasions. The first time he accomplished this was on June 5, 2011, at Belmont Park. This made him the second jockey to win six races in a day at Belmont Park since Jorge Velasquez in 1981; Dominguez won six races from eight mounts, while Velasquez went six-for-six. Dominguez won the first race on board Saginaw by three-quarters of a length. He lost on the second and third race, but won races four through seven aboard Bellamy Star, Little Larky, Darrin’s Dilemma, and Show Trial, respectively. Finally, he seized his sixth win on race nine aboard Hessonite. Dominguez nearly broke the record and had seven wins on that day, but he ended up finishing in second place aboard Rail Trip after they were worn down by Friend Or Foe.
The second time that Dominguez achieved six wins in a day was on July 22, 2012, at Saratoga, winning six races out of ten that day. He won the first, second, fourth, seventh, eight, and tenth races aboard Paper Plane, Summer Front, Rigby, Temper in Command, and Reach for a Peach, respectively. He didn’t have a mount for race three, and he took second in race five aboard Current Design.
The third and final time that Dominguez won six races in a day was also at Saratoga on September 2, 2012. He won races two, four, six, seven, eight, and nine aboard Cue The Moon, Native Wave, World Premier, Shakeira, Temper in Command, and Unbridled Command, respectively.
Post- Retirement
Dominguez had taken his share of spills during races by 2013, but the worst was yet to come. In past races, he had suffered a separated collarbone, fractured his collarbones and wrists, and broken a wrist. He had also injured his skull in 1998 at Delaware Park. The accident that triggered his retirement in the seventh race at Aqueduct on January 18, 2013, was particularly devastating: he was thrown from his mount and kicked in the head by a trailing horse.
The result of this terrible accident was multiple skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury. His physician told him that he could no longer ride because if he were to suffer a third head injury, it would be critical. Dominguez reluctantly announced his retirement five months after the incident through the New York Racing Association on June 13, 2013. He was a three-time Eclipse Award Winner as Outstanding Jockey at the time of his retirement and could have achieved even more if he was able to continue racing.
After the accident, Dominguez avoided horse racing at first because it was painful for him to watch when he knew he could never race again. His wife supported him through this and eventually encouraged him to go watch some races at Saratoga, and he unexpectedly found himself enjoying it again. He has been involved in the racing industry in several ways since then: he advocated for horse racing as the president of the New York Race Track Chaplaincy, he is part of the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund (PDJF), he is an ambassador for equine welfare charity Brooke USA, and he created a YouTube channel called Exacta Box with Jose Francisco Rivera. The Exacta Box features interviews of influential people in the horse racing industry and analyzes races for Spanish-speaking racing aficionados.
Dominguez also invented an improved and safer version of the riding crop called the 360 GT Riding Crop. The traditional cushion riding crop was introduced in 2008, and although it was an improvement over previous crops, Dominguez knew that it could be improved even further. His design incorporates a cylindrical end (hence the 360 in the name) and is highly cushioned with improved shock absorption.
Dominguez still enjoys competing in races, but now he does it on his own two feet. An avid runner, the former jockey joined a running club post-retirement and runs competitively in New York. He won the Altamont 5k in 2022, and typically trains for 37 miles per week.
Notable Horses Mounted
Sweetnorthernsaint, Better Talk Now, Bluegrass Cat, Invasor, Big Truck, Gio Ponti, Havre de Grace, Mucho Macho Man, Little Mike, Hansen.