Gallardo Switches to Gulfstream for Winter

After being the leading jockey in wins each of the last three seasons at Tampa Bay Downs, Antonio Gallardo is riding at Gulfstream Park this winter,

He has one win in 14 starts at the Gulfstream championship meet, which opened on Saturday. He  is named on a total of 13 mounts at  Gulfstream this Wednesday, Thursday and  Friday.

Gallardo, a native of Spain, had been riding at Aqueduct in Ozone Park, N.Y.  He has 13 wins and his mounts have earned $910,599 in that track’s winter meet that began on Nov. 1. That puts him fifth in wins and fifth in earnings for the meet.

Through Monday, Gallardo has 322 wins in 2016.  Those victories were mostly at Tampa Bay, Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa., and Monmouth Park in Oceanport, N.J.

He is second in North American wins behind Jose Ortiz, who has 336 and rides primarily at the major tracks in New York State.

However, Gallardo is only 25^th in North American earnings with $7,035,315.  That points to the differences between the purse structures at Tampa Bay and Presque Isle and the purse structures at Gulfstream, Aqueduct Belmont Park and Saratoga.

In 2015, Gallardo finished second in North American wins with 320.

Javier Castellano was first in wins with 344 and first in earnings for his mounts with $28,120,819.  In 2015-2016, he led jockeys in wins for the fifth straight time in Gulfstream’s championship meets.

Gallardo was 39^th in North American earnings in 2015 with $5,441,498.

 --Jim Freer