Our questions are answered by the popular and prolific award-winning rider with more than 6,100 winners to his name
DeShawn Parker, 52, is the fifth winningmost jockey in the US among active riders. With over 6,100 career wins and rising, he is a place below Kent Desormeaux and above Mike Smith, both Hall of Fame jockeys and also in their 50s.
Unlike them, Parker has yet to win a graded stakes but those opportunities are infrequent at tracks like Mountaineer in West Virginia, where he is the all-time leading jockey.
Nevertheless, he is one of only 21 riders to break the 6,000-winner threshold and in 2010 claimed the first of back-to-back national jockey titles for races won with 377 victories. He was the first African-American jockey to top the list in 115 years.
“It was a great accomplishment, for sure,” he says. “I worked day and night to get there, but no matter what I do I just see myself first as a jockey. We all pull our pants on one leg at a time and you gotta have the horse to get you there. Without the horse underneath you, we can’t do much at all.”
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Parker won the Jockeys’ Guild Laffit Pincay Jr. Award in 2012 and both the George Woolf Award and Mike Venezia Award in 2021.
He was introduced to racing by his father Daryl Parker, who worked as an exercise rider and jockeys’ agent before becoming the first Black racing official in North America, serving as a steward at Ohio racetracks. He died in 2021.
On June 27 Parker was seriously injured before a race at Horseshoe Indiianapolis when a filly he was riding reared over and fell on top of him, then stepped on him as she got up. He broke his pelvis in four places and fractured his tailbone, undergoing surgery the following day.
After being released from hospital, he said: “I’m doing well – surgery went great so now I just have to heal and rest.”
Which racing figure past or present do you most admire?
There are a bunch – Angel Cordero, Laffit Pincay, Pat Day. Pat Day is one I really looked up to because he was so patient on a horse. Me riding now it’s hard to believe how patient he was on a horse. So it’s those guys and also Heriberto Rivera Jr, who was a good friend of mine and, like my Dad, showed me the ropes. Growing up in the jocks’ room I got to hang around him and saw how he operated. I tried to follow after him. Those guys were great.
Which is your favorite racecourse and which is your favorite race?
My favorite racecourse is Keeneland because of how beautiful it is. I’ve never been to Del Mar but I’m told that is nice too. I’ve been to Keeneland, I’ve rode at Keeneland and won races at Keeneland, so that is one of the tops. But I take nothing away from Mountaineer because I made my living there.
The race would have to be the Kentucky Derby and I hope to get there one day. It’s not something I have to do although it would be a great thing to do. I’ve been going to Fair Grounds in the hope I stumble across a baby. I have time for it to happen. The Kentucky Derby is the best race in the world. I just have to find a young baby at the right time.
Who is your favorite racehorse and why?
Rapid Redux and Private Bet. Rapid Redux broke the record for the most straight wins in a row {22 in 2012]. I had the pleasure of riding him six or seven times. I think I broke the record on him and then he came and broke it again!
I loved Private Bet, who was one of the coolest horses I’ve ever ridden. You don’t really have to do anything on those horses because they loved to run. Private Bet loved going distances, up to two miles. He would just take his time down the backstretch and he knew when to pick it up. He did it himself.
Rapid Redux would go to the lead and soon as he felt something coming to him, he would take back off. As soon as he got a little bit in front he would relax and then take off again. I never had a horse that gave as many gears as him.
What is your fondest memory in racing?
That would have to be my 6,000th win in June 2022. It was recent, it was special. The only thing that could have made it better was if my Dad was there, but he wasn’t. For Mama was the horse at Horseshoe Indianapolis. That whole week I had a lot of horses that I liked. They were favorites and they weren’t hitting the board. I was getting frustrated. I ended up winning two that day. For Mama was one that I liked, but I was in a lot of trouble down the stretch but finally got a hole and finally got up.
If you could change one thing in racing what would it be?
Right now it would be all the HISA rules with the whip. I don’t think we are able to inflict any pain on the horses, especially now we have these sticks with soft foam which don’t hurt at all. If they are giving you a stick that doesn’t hurt at all, why can’t we hit them?
As a jockey the whip rule is the one I’d like to get rid of. Before, if you didn’t hit a horse and got beat, you were holding them. Now you are getting to a point where you can’t hit them and it’s considered okay. It doesn’t line up.
Before you wanted us to hit horses to win races, and if not you punished us for not trying. Now we can’t hit them and you are still punishing us. We can’t really win races and if we do go over then we are getting punished again because we went over so we lose a whole day of racing, plus get fined.
DeShawn Parker was speaking to Jon Lees
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