JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Thursday, July 17, 2025

Jadoo still at the top

by

1510 days ago
20210529
Veteran jockey Ricky Jadoo sits low as he steers Glenn Mendez- trained Juice Man to win race six, the Modified Benchmark Handicap for three-year-old and over horses rated 90 and over, going 1,750 metres at Santa Rosa Park Arima on August 1.

Veteran jockey Ricky Jadoo sits low as he steers Glenn Mendez- trained Juice Man to win race six, the Modified Benchmark Handicap for three-year-old and over horses rated 90 and over, going 1,750 metres at Santa Rosa Park Arima on August 1.

Sports Desk

For­mer cham­pi­on jock­ey Ricky Jadoo be­came the old­est jock­ey in the 31 years of rac­ing of the sport at the cen­tralised fa­cil­i­ty at San­ta Rosa Park in Ari­ma to win the Trinidad Der­by when he land­ed the Mer­lin Sam­lals­ingh-owned/Glenn Mendez-trained Cape Canaver­al in 2018.

The fifty-five-year-old ever­green rid­er is con­sid­ered the 'Mike Smith' of horse rac­ing in T&T. Jadoo has not on­ly won six Trinidad Der­by events but he was al­so in­duct­ed in­to the rac­ing "Hall Of Fame" at the Jet­sam Awards of 2018. Jadoo has the dis­tinc­tion of win­ning all the ma­jor events on the lo­cal horse rac­ing cal­en­dar. He clear­ly has noth­ing to prove to any­one. He is a rac­ing icon.

Asked about the im­pact of COVID-19 and the cur­rent rac­ing sit­u­a­tion, Jadoo said, "This is a tough time. It is not like long ago in the boom years. Re­al­ly, these are try­ing times with many jock­eys un­der con­sid­er­able pres­sure with the eco­nom­ic de­cline. But we have to have faith and hope in the rac­ing game."

How­ev­er, he warned that all suc­cess comes through dis­ci­pline and ded­i­ca­tion.

"The re­al­ism is that I have to ad­just my life to the cir­cum­stances and with the State of Emer­gency (SoE), I can­not get to work at 5 am any more. That is not my kind of time and my day would usu­al­ly be­gin at 3.30 am and I would be dri­ving to San­ta Rosa Park at 4 am from San Fer­nan­do," said Jadoo.

This year to open the 2021 rac­ing sea­son, Jadoo teamed up with the Mendez-trained six-year-old chest­nut horse Gen­er­al JN to win the first Grad­ed event on the Ari­ma Race Club, 2021 rac­ing cal­en­dar – the Stake­hold­er Sian’s Gold Sprint over 1,100 me­tres on the turf track.

Jadoo who is ac­cus­tomed to re-writ­ing the record book was full of praise for the train­er Mendez and the thor­ough­bred Gen­er­al JN, say­ing: "Mendez knows how to ready hors­es and I am for­tu­nate to be rid­ing for him. We con­tin­ue to be suc­cess­ful. At my age, I am hap­py to land the top races.

"Glenn Mendez is one of the train­ers, who is very dis­ci­plined and he will want any­one who works with him to have dis­ci­pline and to be com­mit­ted. He is the type of man who asks you to be dis­ci­plined when it comes to your job.  He is a good man and a great train­er. I am hap­py to be as­so­ci­at­ed with him.

"In my ca­reer, I have had great as­sis­tance and sup­port I must thank Jack De­bideen for his as­sis­tance in my ca­reer. He hat­ed me to miss a day of train­ing. He ex­pect­ed dis­ci­pline and loy­al­ty.”

The like­able Jadoo was aboard favourite Juice Man who land­ed the fi­nal legs of lo­cal rac­ing’s ‘Triple Crown’ in 2019 when he rode his sixth Der­by win­ner.  

Dur­ing his long and il­lus­tri­ous ca­reer, Jadoo has al­ways been sought by own­ers and train­ers alike. From his ear­ly days with Mal Lewis down south to De­bideen in the Cap­i­tal city, now to Mendez, Jadoo's cool, qui­et and col­lec­tive, yet con­fi­dent man­ner was in­fec­tious.

To­day, Jadoo com­mands the re­spect of all train­ers and own­ers and yet has the ad­mi­ra­tion of his col­leagues of the pigskin. He is the jock­ey I con­sid­er to be one of the best rid­ers at San­ta Rosa Park. He has won the cham­pi­onship four times.

One can on­ly look back and re­mem­ber his bril­liant per­for­mances aboard the Mendez-trained/Mer­lin Sam­lals­ingh-owned Top Of The Class, Cape Canaver­al and his fi­nal Der­by win­ner Juice Man to note his bril­liance. The rac­ing fra­ter­ni­ty then cel­e­brat­ed with Jadoo in 2019, at the Jet­sam Awards.

Jadoo got in­ter­est­ed in hors­es when his fa­ther took him to the pad­dock at Union Park in Mara­bel­la.

"I fell in love with hors­es that day and I knew that was my fu­ture," said Jadoo, who in his ear­ly days was spent with Lewis be­fore he went to the jock­ey school for 18 months.

"When I grad­u­at­ed, I rode my first win­ner Am­ber Light for Lewis. For 39 years I worked re­al­ly hard and it has paid off. For that I am thank­ful. I am proud of what I have achieved."

Hope­ful­ly, Jadoo, who lives with his wife and daugh­ters in San Fer­nan­do, will be rid­ing un­til the ripe old age of 60.

Salute to the rac­ing icon.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

iiq_pixel