Espinoza relishes third shot at elusive Triple Crown

Victor Espinoza is face-to-face with the chance of a lifetime -- for an astounding third time -- as he prepares to pilot American Pharoah to potential Triple Crown glory in the Belmont Stakes.

"I'm feeling lucky this year -- third time is a charm," said the 43-year-old after American Pharoah drew the fifth post for Saturday's 1 1/2-mile race at Belmont Park in New York.

He's the first jockey to get a third chance to capture American racing's coveted treble of the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

"I never thought I was going to be in this position that I'm at right now for the third time," Espinoza reflected after returning to his Southern California base in the wake of his Preakness win aboard the Bob Baffert-trained American Pharoah.

"One time I thought it was just amazing and the second time I like 'OK I never thought I'd have another chance now," said Espinoza, whose first Triple Crown try in 2002 ended with his mount War Emblem's stumble out of the gate in the Belmont.

His second chance didn't come until last year, when he guided California Chrome to victory in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, only to finish equal fourth in the Belmont.

"I can't look back and worry about the two times I lost the Belmont," Espinoza said. "Every day is different. Every horse is different."

But Espinoza has learned something about managing the scrutiny that comes with a Triple Crown bid.
Only 11 horses have achieved the treble, the most recent Affirmed in 1978.

Every chance brings a white-hot spotlight, and every miss is discussed and dissected.

"I never get too caught up in the moment," Espinoza said. "I just keep working on my career, doing things normally, taking it one day at a time."

He rode his first winner in 1992 at Hippodromo de las Americas in his native Mexico and four months later moved to the United States, where his brother Jose retired as a jockey after suffering a head injury in a 2013 fall and another brother, Leo, is also a former jockey.

The boys were part of a family of 12 children who grew up on a farm in central Mexico, where Espinoza first learned to ride.

Eventually he made it through the jockey school program required for licensing in Mexico, not before a stint as a teenaged bus driver in the infamous traffic of Mexico City.

"I never thought that I wanted to be a jockey,"  Espinoza recalled. "I never even saw a racehorse. Day by day I just slowly I went through the process and the next thing I know I'm deeper into the races.

"To me it's all like everybody else, just trying to survive. When I decided that I knew it's going to be my career as a jockey I wanted to make sure that I was going to be successful and do the right things and work hard."

Quick to laugh, Espinoza can be an entertainer -- pulling off his boots and pouring out the rainwater as he celebrated his Preakness win aboard American Pharoah in a driving storm.

- Goals, not dreams -

But Espinoza is nevertheless a pragmatist.

"Dreams I didn't have, but goals I had, and I worked hard to get those goals in life," he said, recalling his youthful idea of success was not racing glory but to become "a millionaire."

Now, he says, "My goal is to be successful and to win as many races as I can."

It's an approach that has seen him amass more than 3,200 race victories, 219 of them in graded stakes.

He shares the wealth by donating a percentage of his earnings to the City of Hope cancer treatment center in Southern California, inspired by the pediatric patients he has met there.

"It's just unbelievable. They're the happiest people on earth. They just go day by day, they don't know what else will come the next day," Espinoza said, noting that money he gives "is not going to affect my life so much, but probably it's going to help them."

For Espinoza, it's an obvious choice, just like the career steps that have brought him, again, to the brink of history.

There's no grand design, just a continuing curiosity and a willingness to work hard.

"I've been riding 20 years and I can never say I've learned everything about how to be a jockey," he said. "That's probably why I've won three Kentucky Derbies, because I believe that I can learn every day something about the races, the horses, everything in life."
Source: AFP