By Alan Carasso
In his first seven years as a professional jockey in this country, Florent Geroux rode an average of 70 winners per season, with combined earnings of $11.5 million. In 2015 alone, the Frenchman has won 168 races (through Dec. 8), of which 14 have come at the graded stakes level. After winning his first Breeders' Cup race courtesy of champion Work All Week (City Zip) in the 2014 Sprint, Geroux added another pair of victories on championship weekend this year–the GI Juvenile Fillies Turf aboard Catch a Glimpse (City Zip) and the GI Turf Sprint astride Mongolian Saturday (Any Given Saturday). His mounts have earned better than $10 million, and Geroux will look to cap a memorable 2015 season in this Sunday's G1 Longines Hong Kong Sprint, as he rides the latter for trainer Ganbat Enebish.
“I am very grateful for the opportunity to ride in Hong Kong– it's the opportunity of a lifetime,” Geroux commented when reached by phone last week. “Not many jockeys have the chance to go overseas and it's great to be able to represent the United States. It's very exciting and I am very excited to ride against some of the best jockeys in the world.”
Geroux's rise has been nothing short of meteoric. The son of former French jockey and trainer Dominque Geroux, Florent attended riding school in France at the age of 13 and became that country's leading apprentice, primarily riding for trainer Mathieu Boutin. He made the decision to come to this country in 2007, more or less for a change of pace, and began exercising and riding some horses for fellow Frenchman Patrick Biancone, but was injured later that year. Geroux ultimately relocated to the Chicago circuit and rode with modest success before a chance visit to get away from the bitter Midwest winter led to a chance meeting.
“I decided to go to Gulfstream Park,” Geroux explained. “I wasn't really trying to do anything special, but it was a new track with a different jockey colony and gave me a chance to make some new connections. While I was there, I met Doug Bredar, who had been a racing secretary, but was trying to become an agent.”
Since that time, Geroux's career has fully taken flight. In addition to his two Breeders' Cup wins, the 29-year-old posted top-level success in the GI Arlington Million (The Pizza Man) for trainer Roger Brueggemann, the GI Cotillion S. (I'm a Chatterbox) for Larry Jones and the GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (Her Emmynency), for trainer Mike Stidham.
“I have been blessed to ride a better quality of horse in Chicago and in New Orleans and things really started to click once I teamed up with Doug,” Geroux explained. “I'm very grateful for the chances I've been given.”
As for the task ahead Sunday at Sha Tin, Geroux isn't conceding defeat in a race that has largely been dominated by Hong Kong-based runners, with the occasional foreign raider slipping in.
“I feel pretty good about his chances,” the jockey opined. “The horse traveled great to Hong Kong and he's looking good, but I think he should be OK. I'm very excited.”
He added, “I think we have some of the best sprinters in the world. You look at a horse like Undrafted, who went to Royal Ascot and won [the G1 Golden Jubilee S.] and it just shows you that our horses can compete. Sometimes people criticize our horses and I hope to prove them wrong.”
That opportunity comes just past the bottom of the 2 p.m. hour Sunday afternoon.
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