17-Year-Old Herrera Caps 14-Mount Day With Grade 1 Win

Tireless might be the best word to describe 17-year-old Diego Herrera and his efforts Jan. 2.

The apprentice jockey spent Sunday afternoon riding five horses at Santa Anita Park, winning one race before hopping in a car and traveling to Los Alamitos Race Course for its nighttime program. There, he was scheduled for eight more rides, or so he thought.

As he prepared to call his job finished for the day, or rather, the day and night, opportunity knocked. Less than a half-hour before post, trainer Juan Aleman needed a substitute rider on the favorite in the night's final race, Gentry Farms' Kiss Thru Fire, and Herrera was game.

This wasn't your typical final race of low- or mid-level runners, but rather the $100,000 Charger Bar Handicap, a grade 1 Quarter Horse event, the kind of race in which an apprentice jockey rarely participates. But Herrera made the most of his chance on the race's defending champion, guiding Kiss Thru Fire to a half-length victory with his 14th ride of the day.

"It was a surreal moment, pretty cool," said the young jockey.

He wasn't the only one that found it memorable, with Los Alamitos announcer Michael Wrona exclaiming, "Kiss Thru Fire goes back to back in the Charger Bar beneath late replacement jockey Diego Herrera! What a moment for the young rider!"

Gentry Farms’ Kiss Thru Fire wins the Charger Bar Handicap and is the first repeat winner in this race since champion Quirky in 2015-16. Jockey Diego Herrera also wins his first G1 stakes. Juan Aleman trains the multiple G1 stakes winner Kiss Thru Fire. pic.twitter.com/auhZk19X4M

— Los Alamitos Race Course (@losalracing) January 3, 2022

Herrera's stakes success comes just a month removed from his graduation from high school at Lennox Academy, where he took online classes while pursuing his riding career.

On weekends, when both Santa Anita and Los Alamitos host racing, he said his day begins with him waking up at 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. PT, after which he proceeds to Santa Anita to breeze horses. If his morning activity there wraps up in time to go to Los Alamitos, he heads there, only to return to Santa Anita by 11:00 to prepare for riding races in the afternoon.

Then, after riding the card, he departs Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., to go to Los Alamitos in Cypress for evening racing. Racing there keeps him active until nearly 10:00 p.m.

Weekdays aren't as busy with Santa Anita only running Fridays regularly during the week and Los Alamitos racing only on weekends.

Still, it's the kind of weekend schedule only a young man could keep, but one Herrera wants to continue through his apprenticeship, which lasts until late April. At that point, he will lose his "bug," or weight allowance given to apprentice jockeys.

"If I can continue to be successful with both breeds, I would love to keep doing both," he said.

Herrera grew up with an appreciation for each of the two types of horses. He said his father, Augustine, owned Quarter Horses, and while growing up as a child in Inglewood, he would watch races near the backstretch of Hollywood Park, before it closed in 2013.

"Now it's a different view," he said, referring to National Football League's SoFi Stadium that exists on the property.

Officially, his riding career began in 2021, though he competed in unsanctioned match races long before. Fueled by bragging rights among people claiming their horse was faster than another owner's animal, a young Herrera found himself riding in match races from Long Beach to Victorville to Bakersfield, even out of state in Utah, Washington, and Idaho.

"The Quarter Horses have always been in my blood," he said.

Now Thoroughbreds, too. His victory Sunday at Santa Anita came aboard the Phil D'Amato-trained Solo Animo  for owners CYBT, Saul Gevertz, Michael Nentwig, Roger Newman, and Daniel Weiner.

Her head victory in the one-mile starter allowance gave Herrera his first winner on turf, the rider said.

Through Jan. 5, he has 45 winners from 386 rides in Thoroughbred races. He is 26-for-203 in Quarter Horse races and 14-for-111 in mixed-breed contests.

Like every apprentice, he has made mistakes. This summer, California stewards suspended Herrera and veteran rider Jose Valdivia Jr. for their roles in a large spill in the seventh race at Del Mar Aug. 22. The track reported that the fallen horses in the spill escaped significant injury, though some jockeys missed riding due to injuries.

Herrera received five days for allowing his mount, Sassy Chasey, "to remain in tight quarters entering the far turn and causing interference, resulting in an accident," the ruling said. Sassy Chasey clipped heels, setting off a chain reaction in which six other horses unseated their riders.

"I looked at the race over and over. I went to the stewards and looked at the race from a different perspective," he said. "A lot of racing experience you get is from the downfalls and the mistakes you make. I learned a lot from that. It kind of opened my eyes. Like everybody says, it is a process, and you have to learn."

Though Herrera didn't win a race in 37 rides at Del Mar this summer, he rebounded to win six races there during the fall meet. He also won seven races during the Thoroughbred fall meet at Los Alamitos and six races during the meet there last month.

Since the autumn, Herrera has teamed in the Southern California Thoroughbred circuit with jockey agent Derek Lawson, who initially guided Flavien Prat to his ascent in the local riding colony before that duo parted in February. Another agent represents Herrera for Quarter Horse racing at Los Alamitos.

Herrera credited Thoroughbred agent Vincent Gregory, suggested to him by Scott Craigmyle, the racing director at Los Alamitos, for his initial introduction to horsemen at Santa Anita and riding there.

The apprentice has two wins from 19 rides at the current Santa Anita meet that began Dec. 26. That places him in a tie for sixth in the standings, well behind Hall of Famer John Velazquez, who leads Prat by a 12-11 margin.

Besides D'Amato, trainers Doug O'Neill, Michael McCarthy, Mark Glatt, and Richard Baltas are among the trainers that have ridden him at Santa Anita this winter.

"My long-term goal is to stick to the Thoroughbreds, a lot more money and business in Thoroughbreds, but hopefully I can continue to be successful in both (breeds) for a long time," Herrera said.