Jaime A. Torres

Jockey Jaime Torres ended 2023 as the leading apprentice rider on the top-level NYRA circuit, earning more than $2.6 million in purses. The native of Puerto Rico first worked in the industry as an exercise rider in that country’s jockey school and then moved to Florida where he breezed horses for trainer Saffie Joseph Jr.

Torres then began his riding career in south Florida and won his first race at Gulfstream Park on Sept. 17, 2022. He rode mainly in New York during 2023 and moved to Fair Grounds late in the year after losing his apprentice weight allowance and becoming a journeyman. Torres also rides on the Kentucky circuit.

Overall, in 2023 Torres won 99 races and earned just over $5 million in purses. He finished the year ranked 81st nationally in terms of wins for jockeys and 52nd in terms of earnings.

Torres won his first career stakes race late in 2023 in the Letellier Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds aboard Leslie's Loot on Dec. 23, 2023. He then won his second stakes in the very next race that same day when he scored in the Richard R. Scherer Memorial Stakes aboard Just Might.

Early in the 2024 Churchill Downs spring meet, Torres picked up the mount on Seize the Grey in the Grade 2 Pat Day Mile Stakes for trainer D. Wayne Lukas after having been aboard that horse's maiden win at Saratoga in July 2023.  Torres won the $600,000 Pat Day Mile aboard Seize the Grey to earn his first career graded stakes victory.

Torres secured his first career Triple Crown mount aboard Seize the Grey in the 2024 Preakness Stakes, and his first career Triple Crown / Preakness mount turned out to be a winning one when Seize the Grey got out front in an eight-horse field and went wire-to-wire to win by 2 1/4 lengths.