Page 44 - Speedhorse October 2018

Becoming a top jockey takes courage, dedication, talent and an epic work ethic. To also be voted by your rider peers as a jockey whose personal character reflects positively
on your sport adds a high level of respect and admiration to that bullet list of requirements. This year, Quarter Horse jockeys chose Ricky Ramirez as the jockey who checks off all the boxes on that list, naming him the 2018 Sam Thompson Memorial Jockey Award winner.
“Winning the Sam Thompson Award was awesome feeling,” Ricky says. “It’s a dream come true to be recognized. I’m getting emotional saying this: I’ve gone way farther than I ever imagined in my career and I’m very blessed.
“I got to ride with Sam a little bit at Sunland Park and at Ruidoso; we were actually in the same corner in the jocks’ room at Sunland Park. We got to know each other pretty well. I admire him because he was always attending to business and he was just a likable, good guy. I looked up to Sam for the way he carried himself. He gave a good name to Quarter Horse racing.”
by Diane Rice
HIS BEGINNINGS
Ricky, now of Brock, Texas, started his career in 1998 at age 13, riding match races for his father, Hector, around his home in Odessa, Texas. “It was always my dream to be a jockey,” he says.
His first win opened the door to riding for some of his father’s friends as well. He continued riding match races through high school and then, after graduation, went to Ruidoso and got his jockey’s license.
But life on the road didn’t suit him at the time. “I didn’t like being away from home,”
he says. “I went back to Odessa for about four years, riding match races, and then I’d ride at Ruidoso or any other racetrack someone wanted me to help out at. Then I’d go home again.”
In 2006, Ricky got in with Harvey Baeza, riding all his horses at Ruidoso Downs. While there, he got to know Trey Wood and started helping him when he had time. That led to riding for Trey’s father, Blane.
One day in El Paso, the Woods asked Ricky if he’d go out to the family ranch in Lubbock,
Texas, to help break some babies. “We asked him in the afternoon and he was there that night,” says Trey. “We’ve been together ever since.”
Around that time, the Woods’ regular jockey, J.J. Gonzales, was getting ready to quit riding, so when he stepped down, Ricky stepped up. By 2008, Ricky was the Woods’ first-call jockey. “That was when my career started growing,” Ricky says. “Until then, nobody knew who Ricky Ramirez was!”
Ricky’s first futurity win came that year when he won the $130,000 New Mexican Spring Futurity-RG1 aboard Hearts Runaway (Runaway Colors-Heart Stopping, Dash For Cash) at Sunland Park.
The Wood/Ramirez team won their first “big” race together in Nov. 2010, when Ricky rode Bodacious Dash to the winner’s circle in the $1 million Texas Classic Futurity-G1. “From there, things just started clicking really good for us,” Trey says.
Ricky and Trey ended 2010 as Leading Jockey and Leading Trainer for Lone Star Park’s Quarter Horse Fall Meeting of Champions.
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Ricky Ramirez wins the Eighth Annual
Linda Earley Photography