By Dick Jerardi
Silvestre Gonzalez was a bit late to the jockey’s life so he did not get discouraged when his first winner did not come until his 61st try. He just put his head down and went to work.
That first winner, Coldblack, came on March 12, 2016 at Parx. Since then, Gonzalez has won 709 more races. His mounts have earned $22.3 million. He is firmly established as one of the best riders at the track, currently fourth in the standings with 61 winners in 2024.
He is not flashy. He is just solid. He has a great mentor in agent Joe Hampshire (3,801 winners over a 32-year career). And he just keeps getting better.
He grew up in Williston, Florida, not far from horse country in Ocala. He was always around animals. He had a friend in high school whose father was an exercise rider and suggested Gonzalez had the size to ride some horses.
“Coming out of high school, I didn’t really know what the next step was,” Gonzalez said.
So he had his friend talk to her father to see if he could learn and eventually help him get on some horses.
“It just took one horse to really get on their back,” Gonzalez said, “From there, it was like this is what I want to do.”
He worked for years as an exercise rider in Ocala for such top trainers as Christophe Clement and Mark Casse. That passion for horses eventually led to taking the leap from the mornings to the afternoons. He credits trainers Mary and Mike Lightner with giving him the confidence he could do it.
Gonzalez’s first three rides were at Gulfstream Park in the summer of 2015. He then came to Parx and has never left. And he has always understood the big picture. It’s not about how you start, it’s what you do next.
“I know it’s a process,” he said. “I know there’s steps to getting to a certain level. I just never lost faith. I was hungry. This is what I wanted to do. I wasn’t going to give up at least until I got a couple of winners, see what that feeling is like.”
His favorite horse is Admiral Abe and why not. The horse won $413,762 with Gonzalez riding. He won the 2021 Marshall Jenney for trainer Bob Mosco. The next year, he won the Parx Dash on Violent Turbulence and the Pennsylvania Nursery on Winning Time both for trainer Kate DeMasi.
Gonzalez, 32, is right in his prime. He wins with all types of horses. He is especially dangerous when he is loose on the lead.
“A lot of the trainers say I have really good hands for relaxing a horse on the front end,” he said. “Keep your face clean is not a bad way to do it.”
Having Hampshire with him has been invaluable, according to Gonzalez.
“He’ll tell you when you’re doing something wrong,” Gonzalez said. “A lot of guys, they just congratulate you when you win a race.”
The top riders leave nothing to chance. Preparation is critical.
“For each horse, I like to go back two or three races and watch the last time he won, just to see how he won and what we can do to get him back in the winner’s circle,” he said.
Down the road, he might try New York in the winter time while keeping his strong business at Parx.
Meanwhile, his career path has taken him from just wanting to get on horses to being an exercise rider and then the biggest jump of all, becoming a jockey.
What convinced him was not that complicated.
“I like when these horses go fast,” Silvestre Gonzalez said.
