Page 38 - October 2016

Ramon Sanchez was awarded the 2016 Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey Award at Ruidoso Downs on Sunday, September 4, 2016, during All American Weekend. Although unable to attend the ceremony, he has officially taken more than 1,800 trips to the winner’s circle in his career.
Ramon says he was in shock about winning the award, especially because he’s been riding only a fraction of his usual book after spending a large part of 2015 recovering from three injuries he sustained that year.
“I was kind of surprised because I hadn’t been riding much,” Ramon says of the award. “I guess you could say I was shocked!”
“He was really happy when he got the news,” adds his wife, Laura. “To him, the award means that he’s respected among all the racing horsemen and that they know how much he’s worked and sacrificed for his career.”
The Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey
by Diane Rice
Award was developed by Speedhorse Magazine in conjunction with The Jockeys’ Guild and modeled after the Thoroughbred racing industry’s George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award. The Sam Thompson Award is given to the Quarter Horse jockey whose personal character on and off the track reflects on the sport in a positive way. Being a peer-elected award makes it all the more meaningful to the jockeys who receive it.
Sam Thompson, who lost his life in a 2008 riding accident, was a Jockeys’ Guild senator,
a room representative at Los Alamitos, and a council member of the Los Alamitos division of the Race Track Chaplaincy of America. “Whenever I needed to discuss something with the jockeys, Sam always took a leadership role,” said Los Alamitos Racing Secretary Ron Church in a 2008 Blood-Horse interview. “He was a young man but he was viewed as one of the deans in the Los Alamitos jockey room. He
always wanted the best for his fellow riders.” This year’s Sam Thompson nominees also
included Jose E. Badilla, Jr., Jorge Martin Bourdieu and John Hamilton. Ramon’s first agent, Neil Bricks, says, “Sam Thompson was a gentleman all the way, and a pretty good rider as well. And Ramon has been an outstanding rider for a long time, too. He’s well honored and well respected in this business and has been a good mentor to the young riders in the jocks’ room. They all look up to him and ask him for advice.”
RAMON JOINS THE RANKS OF THE SAM THOMPSON AWARD’S FIVE PREVIOUS WINNERS:
• 2011 — Roy Brooks
• 2012 — Gilbert Ortiz
• 2013 — G.R. Carter, Jr. • 2014 — Cody Jensen
• 2015 — Eddie Garcia
Ramon Sanchez wins the sixth annual
Linda Earley Photography