Remedio On The Rise

by Heather Likins
   Jockey Maria Remedio has accomplished an impressive feat in the Thoroughbred industry, returning to the saddle after a two-year absence and riding better than ever. Riding from Oct. 2004 through 2009, Remedio earned over $5.6 million and rode 311 winners while riding at Delaware Park, Parx, Penn National, Laurel, Pimlico, and Monmouth. Her mounts were visiting the winner’s circle at a roughly 14% clip. 
    In October of 2009, Remedio delivered her first child via c-section, and was planning to ride part-time while being a full-time mom after her recovery. Participating in a different profession never crossed her mind. 
    “I grew up on a farm my whole life, so I was raised around the horses,” said Remedio. “I’ve always wanted to be a jockey, and once it’s in your blood, it never leaves. It never left me. I graduated high school and I was in dental lab, I can make teeth and do the dental route, but nothing holds my interest like the horses. I guess that’s why I always go back to being a jockey.” 
    When asked if she did anything special to achieve the level of fitness required to be a jockey again Remedio responded, “I had c-sections for both my kids so I had to wait the time for that. After that, no, just get back on the horse and go.” 
    Remedio stuck to her plan riding only a handful of races through 2010 and 2011, when she took additional time off to have her second child. Only 39 days later she was winning on King Kobe (Parachutist) for her mother, owner Patty Remedio at Delaware Park, her favorite moment as a race rider. 
    Remedio resumed her career full-time near the end of 2012 to support her family as a single parent. Business began to pick up as word spread that Remedio hadn’t lost her touch. In 2013, she set a personal best single-season earnings record of $2,797,837, with 95 wins and with 16.2% of her mounts. Nationally, she ranked 97th by earnings. It would be in the 2013 GII Jerome S. that Remedio would finish only a head short of her first graded stakes victory aboard Siete de Oros (A.P. Warrior). 
    “I’ve won some stakes races, but nothing was as exciting as the one in New York,” added Remedio. 
Since 2012 she has had to balance the challenges of being a single parent and being a full-time working professional. Of course there is also the issue of being a female jockey in a sport dominated by men. 
    “I explain it like this,” she added. “I go home, everybody else gets to relax, the guys go home, they get to relax, shut off or do whatever they do. I go right into mom-mode. I never get a break; it’s constant, it’s going, going, going, going. And I enjoy it. I want to be around my kids. I want to do things with my kids, so when I’m not racing, it’s all about my kids. I want to spend as much time around them as possible.” 
    Remedio continued, “I think my greatest challenge every day is to keep going against the boys. I finished third in the jockeys standings at Parx [2013]. I want to stay in the top five and ride in some stakes races.” Click here to share