BALTIMORE (AP) — Jaime Torres was watching horse racing on television in his native Puerto Rico in 2019 when he decided he wanted to be a jockey.
Less than five years later and just two since he began riding, Torres won the Preakness Stakes on Saturday aboard Seize the Grey. To add even more to the biggest accomplishment of his young career, his parents flew to Baltimore to surprise him and were able to celebrate his upset victory.
Torres said he made the decision to quit college and go to jockey school and thought to himself that if he does it, he needs to make it.
“I haven’t rested since then,” the 25-year-old Torres said. “I’ve been working very hard, very hard, not thinking what’s going to happen but working for it. You can’t think like, ‘Oh, that’s going to happen.’ You’ve just got to work and work, and it will come.”
Torres, who also guided Seize the Grey to victory in the Pat Day Mile on the Kentucky Derby undercard on May 4 at Churchill Downs, had never ridden a Triple Crown race before. He’s now 1 for 1.