Page 43 - October 2015

— on November 21, 1964. “When I was six years old with my parents in Guadalajara, a couple of my big brothers [Oscar, Cesar and Damian] came to the United States and were exercising Thoroughbreds at Santa Anita,” Eddie says. “They used to send pictures home and when I saw them, in my imagination I saw where I was going to be.”
Not long after that, Eddie won his first match race in Mexico. “They’d tie me on the horse,” he says. “I rode a lot of races — I rode for seven years in Mexico. I had to survive and my parents were my role models. It was a tough life; everybody in the family had to work for a living.” By the time Eddie turned eight, he was into the races big time at Mexico’s larger tracks.
A Steady Ride Up
In 1979 at age 14, Eddie left Mexico bound for the U.S. Because he
was too young to ride in races, he went to the same man who’d taught his brothers the ropes: Mike Perez at Hemacinto Stables in Hemet, California. There, he spent nine months honing his horse breaking and galloping skills.
With the intention of gaining the experience he needed to return
to California as a bug-boy on the Thoroughbred circuit, Eddie went to Utah and rode Thoroughbreds for Wes Giles’ father, Ed, at Laurel Brown Racetrack near Salt Lake City. It was there that he rode his first Quarter Horse mount, for Jay Giles.
When he turned 16, Eddie got on with Ron Carter, where he got the chance to ride in futurity and derby trials.
Encouraged and accompanied by newfound friend Ralph
Seville, Eddie moved back to California in 1984. There, after a difficult start, he met and formed alliances with Bruce Jackson, Carlos Lopez and Bruce Creager, who was a good friend of Ralph’s.
Eddie’s first stakes win came astride Easy Conversation in the 1986 Los Alamitos Championship. Not many years later, in 1993, he advanced to star status by winning the All American Futurity-G1 aboard A Classic Dash, making trainer Connie Hall the first woman ever to saddle an All American winner. “Eddie had a lot to do with my career,” Connie says. “He’s a very good horseman and can read a horse very well.”
2015 Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey Award winner Eddie Garcia
Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey Award
Eddie Garcia is joined by fellow jockeys, including past Sam Thompson Memorial Award winners Gilbert Ortiz, G.R. Carter Jr. and Cody Jensen, Cathy & Sam Thompson, Sr., Speedhorse owners John & Susan Bachelor, artist Linda Manion, Mindy & Donna MacArthur, Jockeys’ Guild Regional Manager John Beech, Jockeys’ Guild National Manager Terry Meyocks, and many other friends