Right before the 2020 Del Mar summer meet, jockey Juan Hernandez was looking to relocate from the Northern California circuit. He needed an agent, someone to handle his book on a Southern California circuit that includes some of the top riders in the nation.
Craig O’Bryan, who has represented such Hall of Fame riders as Eddie Delahoussaye, Gary Stevens and Alex Solis, was retired, but suddenly work became all the more appealing when the 72-year-old O’Bryan heard Hernandez was looking for an agent.
He was asked this week where accepting Hernandez’s book ranks among the smartest decisions he’s made during his 50-plus years as an agent.
“Probably No. 1,” O’Bryan said with a laugh during a telephone interview with the Southern California News Group. “You can’t get much better than that.”
It keeps getting better, too. Hernandez goes into three-day weekend of racing at Santa Anita with a 33-12 edge over Edwin Maldonado in the jockey standings. He’s won with an astounding 31% of his 108 mounts. It’s not a wise proposition at this point to leave any of his horses off your exotic wagers.
“If you’re a numbers guy, to be 30 percent at a meet like Santa Anita is unheard of,” O’Bryan said. “Laffit (Pincay) in his heyday might have been around 24. Shoemaker maybe 25. Irad Ortiz won seven the other day down at Gulfstream and he was 22 percent before that day. It’s a tribute to Juan. He tries every time. He gives it 110 percent.”
How has he been able to do it in a jockey colony that includes Flavien Prat, Umberto Rispoli, John Velazquez and other top-notch riders?
“He’s riding really well. He’s riding for a lot of the right people. Baffert, I think we’ve won five stakes for Bob,” O’Bryan said. “We’ve been very lucky with him. Everybody. He’s not only a very good rider, but he’s also very smart and he’s also very cool. He’s a lot like a rider I had back in the ’80s, Eddie Delahoussaye. Eddie never got…
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