Winning Ponies

Calling in for Eddie Castro will be his agent Mike Gonzalez. Eddie Castro is not fluent in English and his agent does all the interviews for him. Eddie Castro (born 4/10/1985 in Panama) grew up on a produce farm there where he learned to ride saddle horses at an early age. Influenced by the accomplishments of other local jockeys, Castro attended the Panamanian Jockey School and began riding in races in December 2002. In just over three months he rode thirty-six winners in Panama then decided to move to the United States where he debuted on April 16, 2003 at Gulfstream Park in Florida. Although his fellow apprentice jockeys had more a three-and-a-half month head start, Castro wrapped up the year as the winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. On June 4, 2005 at Calder Race Course, Eddie Castro set an American record with nine wins on a single race card and on November 15, 2006 at Churchill Downs won his 1,000th race. That year, he rode Miesque's Approval to victory in the Sunshine Millio