The Cyclone Brewing West

It has been a little over a year now since jockey Santiago Gonzalez came to ride in the United States, and today, the Venezuelan currently sits atop the jockey leader board at Santa Anita Park. On an overcast Friday morning before the day's races at Santa Anita, Gonzalez harkened back to a special moment riding in his home country of Venezuela.

Just one week after his mother passed away, Gonzalez showed the racing world why he goes by the nickname “El Ciclón,” Spanish for “The Cyclone,” when he came storming home on a horse named Dreaming of Gold in the 2014 G1 Simón Bolívar S.-a South American race with the prestige similar to that of the Breeders' Cup Classic, at La Rinconada Hippodrome Racecourse in Caracas, Venezuela.
“It seemed hopeless for me [and Dreaming of Gold] at the sixteenth pole,” Gonzalez said through his interpreter Ozzie Ayala. “But I kept riding. I always give one-hundred percent on the track and never give up no matter what.  That's why I'm called 'The Cyclone.'”

A racetrack announcer in Venezuela took notice of Gonzalez's aggressive riding style and started calling him “El Ciclón.” Like an unrelenting tropical wind storm, and with a heavy heart that day on October 26, 2014, Gonzalez, with left-handed urging, surged late piloting Dreaming of Gold, winning the Simon Bolivar by a nostril.

“To this day, I believe my mom had something to do with that,” Gonzalez said. “That win was for her. She always believed that I could accomplish great things and encouraged me to chase after my dreams.”

Now 32, Gonzalez had always dreamed of coming to California to ride. And after each race he wins at Santa Anita, Gonzalez looks up to the skies, thanks God, and remembers his mom is watching from heaven.

Gonzalez grew up in a tight-knit family in Maracaibo, Venezuela, the same birthplace as three-time Eclipse Award-winning jockey Javier Castellano.

“We're hometown friends,” Gonzalez said. “He's a pretty good jockey now,” Gonzalez said with a wry smile.

Gonzalez himself first knew he wanted to be a jockey when his father and two brothers, who work at a racetrack in Venezuela, took him to the races. Previously a soccer player in his youth, Gonzalez traded his cleats for a riding career at age 14.

“My dad didn't think I could handle a horse at first because I was so small,” Gonzalez said. “But I proved him wrong.”

Gonzalez would establish himself as a top rider in Venezuela, winning around 2,600 races in his home country. Still, he always dreamed for more.

Opportunities were scarce when Gonzalez first came to the States. He rode at Gulfstream Park and Delaware Park with little success. But a jockey agent named Alex Procel took notice of Gonzalez's tenacity in the saddle and referred him to an agent out West–Craig Stephen.

When Gonzalez came to Santa Anita for the first time it was raining. Thick clouds covered the track and Gonzalez wondered if the poor weather was an omen that he shouldn't be there. Stephen took Gonzalez to the wet backside to start introducing him to trainers, most notably, Stephen's good friend James Cassidy.

“He started working horses for me and I was really impressed the way he was riding in the morning, so I thought I'd give him a chance [in the afternoon],” Cassidy said.
Eventually, the rain cleared that first morning at Santa Anita, and Gonzalez looked up to behold the purple-hued San Gabriel Mountains, which reminded him of being back at the La Rinconada, nestled into the mountains near Caracas.

“I immediately felt home and decided I would stay in California,” Gonzalez said.

In 2015, Gonzalez was ranked 85th nationally in wins and 47th in earnings with nearly $5 million over 774 starts and 117 wins. He captured the 2015 Los Alamitos Winter Thoroughbred Meet riding title and carried that success over to opening day at Santa Anita for its 2015-16 winter/spring meet by winning the first three races. He has ridden top horses like Prize Exhibit (GB) (Showcasing) for Cassidy, winning the GII Monrovia Jan. 3 at Santa Anita aboard the filly, after winning two graded stakes with her last year.

Through today, he leads Rafael Bejarano in the jockey standings at Santa Anita by a margin of six. Gonzalez has 21 wins from 101 starts so far at the meet with earnings of $758,658.
Bejarano and Gonzalez are, in fact, good friends.

“When you get out there you have to try as much as you can to beat that same person you were joking with 10 minutes ago in the jocks room,” Gonzalez said.
Bejarano has won the riding title at Santa Anita six out of the last eight years. It has historically been a difficult task for an outsider to crack the top of the competitive West Coast jockey colony, which has produced the likes of Gary Stevens, Mike Smith, Kent Desormeaux and other Hall-of-Famers. But Santiago is making a name for himself amongst the stiff competition, continuing to separate from the pack in the standings along the way.

“All the trainers are starting to use him now; he's starting to be just as hard to get as Mike Smith,” Cassidy said.

A week ago, Gonzalez rode a horse named Dreaming of Gold (Unbridled's Song), this time at Santa Anita in an allowance race for trainer Jerry Hollendorfer. Before the race, thoughts from that emotional victory riding a horse in Venezuela with the same name no doubt resurfaced for “The Cyclone.”

“I think if my mom were alive today, she'd be really proud of my success,” Gonzalez said.