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Horse racing: Santa Anita Derby can cap jockey Emisael Jaramillo’s fine meet

April 2, 2026

ARCADIA — From a small town to the big racetracks in Venezuela, from Venezuela to Florida, and from Florida to California, jockey Emisael Jaramillo has made a career of bold moves.

Now Jaramillo attempts his boldest move yet. He tries to leap into the ranks of riders of Kentucky Derby contenders.

It begins with the Santa Anita Derby on Saturday, when Jaramillo will be aboard Robusta, 8-1 on the morning line, in a field of seven headed by a horse Robusta came within inches of beating last month. A victory in the $500,000, Grade I race would arguably be Jaramillo’s biggest in his decade in the United States. A finish of third or better would earn enough qualifying points for Robusta trainer Doug O’Neill to consider the May 2 Kentucky Derby.

“This is the main reason we’re here, to find a horse to go to the (Kentucky) Derby and maybe win it,” Jaramillo said, sounding excited about the prospect.

The field for the 1⅛-mile Santa Anita Derby, from the rail out, looks like this: 1. Cherokee Nation, 5-2 on the morning line, Florent Geroux riding; 2. Potente, 2-1 favorite, Juan Hernandez; 3. Vitruvian Man, 15-1, Antonio Fresu; 4. Robusta; 5. So Happy, 7-2, Mike Smith; 6. Start the Ride, 30-1, Armando Ayuso, and 7. Intrepido, 7-2, Hector Berrios.

Winning the Santa Anita Derby itself would put a bow on a remarkable first season at the Arcadia track for Jaramillo.

As Santa Anita’s Classic Meet began its four-day final week Thursday, Jaramillo held an all but insurmountable lead in the jockey standings, his 44 victories (22% of starts) giving him the lead by eight over Hernandez and Kazushi Kimura.

To many fans here, the 5-foot-1, 109-pound Jaramillo came out of nowhere. The new kid is no kid; Jaramillo is 48. He was a star in Venezuela, where he rode three winners of the country’s Triple Crown for colts, and he had ridden a lot of winners in Florida, placing 26th in North America with 154 race victories in 2025, his eighth time in the national top 30 in the past 10 years; but he lacked the major-race triumphs that make jockeys famous.

To fans who caught on quickly, Jaramillo has paid off at the betting windows, producing an 8% profit on win bets since the start of the Santa Anita meet on Dec. 28.

The original gamble was Jaramillo’s, taking a suggestion from veteran jockeys agent Tom Knust, who needed a new client after splitting with Fresu, and O’Neill, who’d liked what he’d seen of Jaramillo’s riding in Florida. O’Neill phoned Jaramillo to propose the move to California, considering it a “Hail Mary pass.” Jaramillo didn’t respond to the voice message right away, having to consider the dependable business he’d be giving up in Florida if he moved west. But with some cajoling by his son Emisael Jr., he soon realized the idea was too good to pass up. The news broke in early December.

“I always wanted to come to California. An opportunity like this, you don’t get it twice,” Jaramillo said, with Emisael Jr. translating, in an interview one morning this week at Santa Anita’s Clockers’ Corner.

Jaramillo and O’Neill have made a great team, winning 21 races together at Santa Anita. O’Neill went into Thursday’s races with 36 victories, topping the trainer standings.

“For him to come out here and do what he’s doing is truly remarkable,” O’Neill said of Jaramillo. “He’s always upbeat, always grateful. He’s just a great addition to the (jockey) colony.”

He gets horses out of the starting gate and into contention. O’Neill said that’s why Jaramillo is such a good fit for Robusta, a thickly built son of Accelerate who would otherwise be prone to drop back early in races. In the 1 1/16-mile San Felipe Stakes on March 7, with Robusta’s concentration sharpened by the addition of blinkers, they started at 67-1 odds and were forced to take a wide trip from the far-outside post position, but got a clear lead in mid-stretch and nearly held on as Potente and Hernandez got up to win by a head.

Jaramillo’s skill out of the gate showed when he rode Cherokee Nation for the first time in late February, broke the colt’s habit of slow starts and scored an ultra-fast maiden victory. Trainer Bob Baffert, who has Cherokee Nation and Potente in the Santa Anita Derby, wanted to keep Jaramillo aboard Cherokee Nation, but the jockey stayed loyal to O’Neill.

Being an in-demand jockey for Baffert (who has eight wins in the Santa Anita Derby, six in the Kentucky Derby) and O’Neill (two of each) means Jaramillo has come a long way from his childhood in rural Tucipido, a five-hour drive south of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. He left Venezuela because he had “accomplished everything” there, he said.

His wife, Maria, daughter Emisaely and son are here, the family living near Santa Anita in Monrovia. He has family in Venezuela, and indicated they’ve been OK in the aftermath of the U.S. military strikes there in January.

For Jaramillo, the focus is on riding winners, hoping Robusta is the next big one.

“He’s just improving race by race,” Jaramillo said of his horse. “He needs to mature a little bit more, but he’s getting better. I really like him.”

Jaramillo’s previous Kentucky Derby mounts, Majesto in 2016 and Grand Mo the First in 2024, were 56-1 and 49-1 longshots from Florida who finished 18th. But a win in the Santa Anita Derby would make Robusta a shorter price and Jaramillo a Kentucky Derby rider to watch.

Jaramillo goes into the race here Saturday with his next move forward just 1⅛ miles away.

Follow horse racing correspondent Kevin Modesti at X.com/KevinModesti.

Orange County Register

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Horse racing: Santa Anita Derby can cap jockey Emisael Jaramillo’s fine meet

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