Jockey Rajiv Maragh Chases his Kentucky Derby Dream

The last time Rajiv Maragh rode in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) it was the most surreal moment of his life.



It was 2017 and he was aboard Irish War Cry , winner of the Wood Memorial Presented by NYRA Bets (G2) and the Lambholm South Holy Bull Stakes (G2). In the days leading up to the race, Maragh's mind was filled with vivid images of the New Jersey-bred winning America's most famous race.



Twenty-two months after Maragh suffered devastating injuries that nearly ended his career, he was confident that it was his destiny to complete his comeback with every jockey's dream. He believed he was going to win the Kentucky Derby.

"I thought the stars were aligned," Maragh said.



Sent off a narrow $4.80-to-1 second choice, Irish War Cry filled Maragh with excitement and anticipation as he battled for the lead with a half-mile to go in the 1 ¼-mile classic. With each stride that brought him closer and closer to the finish line, Maragh was sure his dreams were about to come true.



Then it all fell apart.



An exhausted Irish War Cry began to drop back as he entered the stretch, eventually crossing the finish line a weary 10th as Maragh received a refresher course in the painful twists and turns life can take.



"It was like I had a big, bright balloon," Maragh recalled, "and someone let all of the air out of it. I was deflated."



On May 4, Maragh hopes to again be part of the post parade at Churchill Downs as "My Old Kentucky Home" is played and 20 horses head to the starting gate for the famed Kentucky Derby. He will have to await some twists and turns just getting to the gate as his mount, Shadwell Stable's Haikal, is being treated for a foot abscess that has will see a final decision on his status be made the morning of May 3.

Haikal Being Treated for Foot Abscess



Should he be able to start, Haikal will be a longshot, rather than a favorite, and his 33-year-old jockey will be a wiser, more experienced and more appreciative rider than he was two years ago when fate delivered such a frustrating tease.



"Every day that I ride, I'm thankful for the joy I get from riding and the joy of being healthy goes hand in hand with that," Maragh said. "When you spend nine to 10 months in a body brace, you learn to appreciate opportunities that you may have taken for granted."



If called on Saturday, Maragh's past experiences will allow him to keep his emotions in check as he focuses on the task at hand of guiding Haikal to victory for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin in the 145th Run for the Roses.



"Kiaran and Shadwell have been very instrumental in my career so it would be a great honor to win the Derby for them," Maragh said. "I don't think we've seen Haikal's best race yet. We haven't reached his maximum potential. There's still room for him to show more. If he takes another step forward, there's no telling how good he can be."



The personable Jamaican-born jockey has registered 1,872 wins and earnings of $98.5 million (through May 1) since he started riding on a regular basis in 2004 and owns four Breeders' Cup victories. He has ranked higher than 26th nationally in wins only once and can be overshadowed at times by the current and future Hall of Famers he rides against on a daily basis, yet as a successful and established member of the star-studded New York jockey colony, riding a top contender in the Kentucky Derby is nothing new for him. He was third in the 2011 Kentucky Derby with Mucho Macho Man  (his best finish from five Kentucky Derby mounts) and fourth in 2014 with Wood Memorial winner Wicked Strong , teaching him how to handle the tremendous pressure wrapped into riding in a race as important as the first leg of the Triple Crown.



"I think it's good to have that experience in the race, especially with 20 horses. We normally don't see fields that big so there's the potential for adversity," Maragh said about the Kentucky Derby. "The more you ride in these races and get experience, it's easier to be comfortable and not be nervous. Having that experience under my belt, I can go in there with confidence and ride the way I need to ride, which is important with this horse.



"He has a certain running style. He's not the kind of horse that you can change his running style too much and still expect him to be as effective. I'm just going out there and riding him the way he likes to run and I'm confident that if he's good enough and I give him the right trip he'll finish strongly and run his race."



The way McLaughlin sees it, Maragh's experience will surely come in handy while facing the challenge of rallying Haikal from the back of a cluttered 20-horse field.



"Rajiv has come back from a couple of big injuries in the last few years and he has had some amazing years. He's riding as good as he can possibly ride. He's very confident. He's riding winners every day," McLaughlin said. "We're very happy to have him in the Derby. We have a very good relationship. He's a smart guy and he'll work out the right trip.



"We didn't know when Haikal broke his maiden that we would be taking him to the Derby but we're happy it happened and we're happy to have Rajiv on him. He's a student of the game who watches tape and remembers everything about every horse."



Haikal debuted Nov. 10 at Aqueduct Racetrack and finished second in a seven-furlong maiden race with Jose Ortiz aboard. Ortiz told McLaughlin he wanted to stay with the Shadwell runner, but when Haikal returned Dec. 15 at Aqueduct in a six-furlong race, Ortiz was in Florida and McLaughlin turned to Maragh.



A winner in his second start, Haikal and Maragh took some baby steps in capturing the seven-furlong Jimmy Winkfield Stakes at Aqueduct and then hopped onto the Road to the Kentucky Derby. 



Haikal, a homebred son of Daaher , earned his ticket to Louisville by winning the Gotham Stakes (G3) at a one-turn mile and then finishing third in the Wood Memorial in his first trip around two turns. With such a limited resume in racing at a route, the 1 ¼-miles of the Kentucky Derby would seem problematic, yet Maragh has been delighted with the way Haikal has handled increasingly longer distances.



"I felt he answered a lot of questions in the Wood, even though it was the one race I didn't win with him," said Maragh, who moved to the United States at the age of 13. "It was actually his most promising race. When a horse shows that much talent at this time of the year, you hope they can go long so you can be in the classic races. I think the Wood stamped him as a horse who will relish more distance. It was exciting. It was a defeat, because we finished third, but we gained a lot from that race. I was really happy with the results in a sense."



Haikal was eighth in the Wood Memorial with three furlongs to go, about 14 lengths behind leader, before he kicked into gear and wound up third, four lengths behind the victorious Tacitus. On Saturday, Maragh will be tasked with the even more difficult challenge of breaking from post 11 and guiding Haikal past as many as 19 rivals in a race where the pace may turn out to be moderate.



"Most likely Haikal will be 15th to 20th early on and he'll need some run and a clean trip," said McLaughlin, who gave Maragh the ride on Alpha  (finished 12th) in the 2012 Kentucky Derby. "We don't know whether pace will be :46-and-change or :47-and-change and will be up to Rajiv to react to what's happening."



Racing has been a part of Maragh's life since childhood in Jamaica. His father, Collin, was a jockey who later became a trainer. His brother, Shamir, was a jockey for five years, and his cousins Romero and Tony Maragh are jockeys.



Riding is Maragh's passion in life and in the blink of an eye it was nearly taken away.



An ugly July 15, 2015 spill left him hospitalized with a broken rib, a punctured lung, and four fractured vertebrae, placing his career in severe jeopardy as he faced many long and painful months of physical rehabilitation.



"After a few days I could walk, but for a long time, months upon months, I couldn't recover and things were going badly," he said. "I wasn't sure if I would ever be completely healthy again. After a year goes by and you are still in bad shape, you wonder about that."



With the support of his wife, Angelina, as well as a close-knit family and an indomitable will to ride again, Maragh made it back to the races on Nov. 4, 2016.



Several months later, he received a huge boost when trainer Graham Motion, one of Maragh's biggest supporters, gave him the opportunity to ride Irish War Cry in the Wood and Maragh seized the moment for everything it was worth.



"I've been composed for much of my career but I got caught up in the fairy tale aspect of riding Irish War Cry in the Kentucky Derby because it seemed like I was destined to win," Maragh said. "I went from not knowing if I would ever ride again and going through a lot of tough times mentally and physically to coming back and riding the best 3-year-old. It was like a dream. I got too emotional about it and that led to a lot of disappointment. I was so deflated in the stretch when I realized he was not going to win."



Maragh and Irish War Cry bounced back to finish second in the Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) but they never won another graded stakes together.



Instead, Maragh's career took a turn later in 2017 when he traveled to California to ride in the Breeders' Cup and then accepted an offer to ride there on a full-time basis.



"Riding in California was a spur of the moment decision. While I was at Del Mar, I got a call from (agent) Nelson Arroyo. He told he thought I'd do great in California and I decided to give it a try," Maragh said. "It was timing. I was thinking what was there to lose? Winter was coming. It was an adventure for me."



The adventure only lasted about four months, largely because Maragh became homesick for his family in Florida. 



To understand the value Maragh places on family, last weekend he rode at Belmont Park on April 27, flew to Miami after the races to attend a family party, and then returned to New York to ride the next day's card—something he could not do while riding on the West Coast.  



"While I was in California, I gained a better appreciation for my family and my parents in Florida," he said. "I thought I could jump on a plane and visit them like I do from New York. But it's six hours one way from California with time changes. It took me a month to recover from a short trip, so I couldn't commit to be there that often."



By mid-April Maragh was back in New York and working toward rebuilding the relationships with horsemen that were broken when he headed west. He steadily regained enough clients to finish seventh in the 2018-19 winter meet at Aqueduct with 28 wins, but more importantly, he landed the mount on Haikal and made it back to the Kentucky Derby.



This time, he'll be there without a storybook tale, but with a chance to make a dream come true.