Calder Salutes a Winning Jockey: Eddie Castro

By GREG MELIKOV, Contributing Write

Calder is throwing a party on Saturday for a young, efficient jockey who has turned out to be a winner before his 21st birthday.

Eddie Castro, like many young riders who learned their trade at Calder Race Course over the last decade or two, is proving to be a winner in more ways than one.

Make those nine winners – in one day, on a single card.

On June 4, Eddie set the North American record for most victories. He rode 11 horses that afternoon.

That performance also surpassed Calder's single day record for most wins, 6, shared by four jockeys that included Rene Douglas and Eibar Coa. That pair is doing quite well around the country since their feats in the 1990s.

That performance also surpassed the six winners that Angel Cordero Jr. booted home in '68 and Craig Perret scored with in '89. Both had two other mounts.

That performance also surpassed the seven winners that Jerry Bailey rode on my birthday at Gulfstream Park on Florida Derby Day, March 11, 1995. I know he would have traded several of those wins to whip Thunder Gulch in the big race, but ended up a neck behind on Suave Prospect.

Eddie is the leading rider at Calder, headed toward his second straight riding title after finishing second in '03. He also was on top in the '03-04 and '04-05 Tropical-at-Calder meetings.

"When I'm riding these kind of horses I just try to take advantage and make the most of it, but it takes some luck to win this many," he said.

That June 4 afternoon, Eddie just missed winning the opener, finishing second on Southphilly Barry. Then he won the next three races, including the fourth race on Dakota Max, which returned $13 on the front end.

He sat out the fifth and seventh, but scored on Five Star Susan, who paid $7, in the sixth. In the eighth, he failed to hit the board on Broadway Buck, who ran fourth.

Then Eddie rode five straight winners on the 13-race card, including Sebastian Light -- who returned $12.20 in the ninth race.

On Saturday, there will be a special winner's circle presentation about 2:40 p.m. after the fifth race. Eddie will receive a plaque commemorating each of his nine victories on June 4.

Earlier, between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., he will sign autographs for fans in front of Calder's jockey room.

Eddie has come a long way in a short time since he rode his father's only horse on their farm in Panama, where at 15 he attended jockey school. He captured his first race there on Dec. 6, 2002.

He debuted in America at Gulfstream on April 16, 2003. It wasn't long before he scored his first major stakes victory in the $100,000 Aspidistra Handicap aboard Sara's Success. That year he rode five winners on three different days at Calder.

He also was the nation's Eclipse Award winning apprentice in 2003. No doubt those awards will continue to roll in for a long time.

Greg Melikov has been handicapping and writing about horses for decades. His articles and columns appear in print and on the Internet around the world. Greg is a retired newspaperman who became a racing fan at 13 when he saw 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation, his favorite horse, whip 20 older horses at old Arlington Park.