HERNANDEZ OVERCOMES ALLERGIES TO HORSES, THRIVING IN SECOND YEAR AT REMINGTON PARK

When Harry Hernandez was about 8 years old in Puerto Rico, his father, who was a jockey, put him up on a filly at the racetrack to give his young son a thrill.

“She was one of the best horses in all of Puerto Rico,” said Hernandez, who sits in fourth place among the leading riders at Remington Park this meet with 14 wins entering the racing week of Sept. 18. “He was pretty excited for me. I got a picture and that was my first memory on a racehorse.”

There was only one problem. After he got back from his first unofficial mount and after he had helped groom others in the barn, his eyes began to itch and swell up.

“My eyes would get bigger and then my lips would get big and I was just sneezing red,” Hernandez noted. “I couldn’t breathe on them. It was bad. I asked my dad, ‘How am I going to ride? How am I going to be near horses?’

“He said it wasn’t like a seafood (allergy) thing; that it would go away and not to worry. So I started taking allergy pills just to be around them. Eventually (at about 12 years old), I just stopped taking them and everything was fine.”

Despite overcoming his health setbacks, he knew all along he wanted to become a jockey after his father, Andy Hernandez, a big-time rider in Puerto Rico. Harry would go on to emulate his father by winning a riding title at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz. He was possibly on his way to another riding title this spring, this time at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas, when he would run into yet another breathing problem. This one came from a much more serious set of circumstances.

On June 15, three of Remington Park’s top eight jockeys in the standings right now – Hernandez, David Cabrera (third) and Rene Diaz (eighth) – were all unseated when their horses were involved in a accident. Hernandez, who was leading the jockey standings at the time with 36 wins, broke four ribs and punctured a lung and had to be transported to a hospital in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro.

“I’ve been around a lot of spills but this was the first time I went down when my horse did; it was scary,” he said. “The horse behind me kicked me in the ribs when I was down on the track and that’s what caused all the damage. I was trying to breathe and I couldn’t. At the hospital, they numbed me up on the side and then cut a hole to my lung and inserted a tube. That was great. The air just came rushing back in and I thanked God.”

Hernandez was out a month and Erik Asmussen, the son of Steve Asmussen, the Hall of Famer and 18-time training title holder at Remington Park, went on to win the Lone Star top jockey award with 48 wins.

“But at the end of the day, lying in that hospital bed, you look over and see your girlfriend (Kayla) and your 1-year-old baby boy (Hayden) and you just thank God for everything you have,” said Hernandez. “We have a beautiful family and one on the way in December.”

At Remington Park this meet, Hernandez has had 62 mounts, 14 wins, 12 seconds and nine thirds, winning at a 23-percent rate. That win rate ties him with Floyd Wethey, Jr. for second in that statistical category, behind leading rider Stewart Elliott who is winning at a 34-percent clip.

Hernandez has won on the last two horses he rode here on Saturday, Sept. 14, with Gunny Highway ($54 winner) and From the Heart ($4.60), both for trainer Ronnie Cravens III. Gunny Highway drew away to win by two lengths at 26-1 odds for owner Davey De Wilkett in a 7-1/2 furlong race for maidens on the turf. From the Heart is owned by Jeffrey Thomas Hoffman and won by a half-length as the betting favorite. This also was a 7-1/2 furlong race on the grass. It was a claiming race for 3-year-olds-and-older.

Hernandez is a multiple graded stakes-winning jockey with Heroic Move winning the richest race of the Lone Star meet this year in the Grade 3, $400,000 Steve Sexton Mile on May 27 by a neck, and also with Hotshot Anna in the Grade 3, $100,000 Chicago Handicap on June 23, 2018 at the now defunct Arlington Park. Despite the prestige of those two races, Hernandez said his biggest thrill came by winning the $200,000 listed stakes, the Temperence Hill, at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., on March 29 this spring. Hernandez’s mount, Masqueparade, went off 19-1 for trainer Robertino Diodoro and owner John Holleman and Hernandez pushed the winner to the wire a head in front.

“There were a lot of big riders in town that day to ride the races,” he said. “Brian Hernandez (Jr.) was in that race and I beat him by a head.”

Hernandez is coming off his biggest year, winning the Kentucky Derby in a three-horse photo aboard longshot Mystik Dan. Other riders in the Temperence Hill included Flavien Prat, Ricardo Santana, Cristian Torres and Ramon Vazquez.

As far as Remington Park goes, Hernandez has his goals.

“Everyone always wants to be leading rider,” he said. “But Stewart Elliott? He’s the GOAT (greatest of all time).”

Elliott currently sits at 28 wins, nine ahead of Wethey in second and 14 in front of Hernandez.

Remington Park racing continues tonight through Saturday, Sept. 21. The first race nightly is 6:30pm-Central.

Remington Park has provided more than $357 Million to the State of Oklahoma general education fund since the opening of the casino in 2005. Located at the junction of Interstates 35 & 44, in the heart of the Oklahoma City Adventure District, Remington Park presents simulcast racing daily and non-stop casino gaming. The 2024 Thoroughbred Season continues through Dec. 13. The Grade 3, $400,000 Oklahoma Derby takes place on Sunday, Sept. 29. Must be 18 or older to wager on horse racing or enter the casino gaming floor. Visit remingtonpark.com for more information.

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