Fourth Generation Horseman Debuts in Home State’s Signature Race

BALTIMORE — There’s only one way that Maryland-born and raised Nik Juarez’s homecoming this week could be any better.

“It’s monumental to be at Pimlico,” the 31-year-old jockey and fourth generation horseman said. “One, to ride the Preakness. But let’s win it.”

American Promise, upon whom Juarez won the $500,000 Virginia Derby, is Juarez’s first mount in his home state’s signature race. American Promise finished 16th after encountering some trouble in the Kentucky Derby (G1), but Preakness history is populated with winners that didn’t hit the board two weeks earlier at Churchill Downs.

The list includes three of the seven Preakness victories for Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas, who with American Promise will attempt to tie his buddy Bob Baffert’s record eight wins in the Middle Jewel of the Triple Crown.

Around the Preakness barn Thursday morning, people hollered well-wishes at Juarez, while others took his picture. He had a full slate of media interviews. Though he left Maryland years ago to ride at Monmouth Park — and this spring moved his tack to Kentucky — Juarez remains part of the Maryland racing community.

“These people have known me since before I was a thought,” he said. “This jocks’ room, I grew up right here on the bench. I was on this racetrack my entire life — my grandfather being here, my great-grandfather being here. I’ve got a great [win] picture of my great-grandfather as a trainer. He’s got a stogie in his mouth. He’s on the bridle, and my grandfather is the jockey.”

Juarez’s parents met on the racetrack, his dad, Calixto Juarez, a jockey and mom, Carol Linton, ponying horses as she earned her way through nursing school. On Preakness Day, the elder Juarez will drive the veterinarian’s truck while his mom will pony horses.

“She ponies one day out of the entire year here in Maryland,” Nik Juarez says. “It’s tradition.”

But, his mom won’t accompany American Promise in the post parade and to the starting gate.

“We’ll keep it business as usual,” he said.

Except, having her son in the Preakness is hardly business as usual.

“Oh my gosh, it’s so … I don’t know the word,” Linton said. “Overwhelming. Fantastic. Phenomenal. Spectacular. Any adjective you’d add to that. I never dreamed we’d be where we are today. It’s amazing. He’s got a lot of people behind him, rooting for him.”

Linton is the daughter of long-time outrider, trainer and steeplechase jockey Charlie Linton and granddaughter of owner-trainer Bob Linton.

“We have win pictures all the way from Shenandoah Downs, Marlboro, Bowie Racetrack,” Nik Juarez said of long-shuttered Maryland tracks. “Goodness, all the love and support from home has been overwhelming.”

Juarez grew up in Westminster in Maryland’s Carroll County about 25 minutes northwest of Baltimore. He grew up in 4-H, showing steers and pigs “and all sorts of good stuff. Just a farm kid from Maryland,” he said. He also wrestled for Winters Mill High School and its famed wrestling coach John V. Lowe.

The jockey has kept busy this week, participating in America’s Best Racing’s Pre-Preakness Party at the Mt. Washington Tavern Wednesday evening to raise money for the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance and the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund. Earlier he spent more than four hours at his high school, visiting with the freshman and senior classes. Thursday night was a fundraiser at the Green Turtle in Westminster to benefit the high school’s athletics program and Maryland’s racehorse aftercare program, Beyond the Wire.

“Really a surreal moment to be back home,” Juarez said. “I got to meet with my wrestling coach, John Lowe. I got to meet with my advisor, Mr. Walker. Lots of memories, lots of friends, but very grateful to where I’m standing today.”

His message to the Winters Mill student body: “You’ve got to be resilient. Like the term is, get right back in the saddle. It’s applicable to anybody’s walk of life. Get up, nobody’s coming to help you.”

With news that he was riding in the Preakness, Juarez said he received a text from the Winters Mill athletic director. “The message I sent back was that it’s men like you I’m so grateful to have in my life,’” he said. “They probably don’t realize it, what they’re doing every single day with these kids in school. But they’re really making an impact. I’m 31 and they’re still a part of my life.”

Carol Linton likes to tell people how her son bought the gelding Valid – Nik’s first Breeders’ Cup mount who finished fifth, a neck out of third at 45-1 odds, in the 2015 Dirt Mile (G1) – when the horse was in danger of being sold for slaughter after his career ended.

“He bought him to save his life, and he lived at my farm,” she said. “Nik’s very special. He loves people, loves animals, wants to give back to the world.”

Juarez earned his first win in his first start, aboard Love Heart in a $5,000 conditioned claiming race at Laurel Park on Dec. 14, 2023.

“I credit the horse,” he said. “The first time I rode the turf was at Pimlico on a horse named Irunalatte for Valora Testerman. I’ll never forget, it paid $95 and [track announcer] Dave Rodman says, ‘And it’s Irunalatte getting ready to pay a lotta money!’”

Struggling to catch on as an apprentice in Maryland, Juarez moved his tack to Monmouth Park.

“That wasn’t overnight [success] either, but I made New Jersey home and ended up becoming leading rider a few years later,” he said. “My first 10 years every summer was in New Jersey, then six winters at Gulfstream Park. Really never went back home to Maryland. I went home briefly. I actually got to have a six-win day at Laurel Park [Jan. 11, 2016]. It was nine races, I rode eight, won six, one second, one third. Hooked up with Hugh McMahon, who was my man in Maryland, very supportive of me early on in my career.”

Juarez returned to Pimlico in 2017 to win the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) on 3-year-old filly Actress, a maiden who paid $27.60. “Her son, Hit Show just won the Dubai World Cup,” he said.

The past three winters Juarez rode at Oaklawn Park. There he hooked up with Lukas and Gary Stevens, the legendary Hall of Fame rider who won each Triple Crown race three times and who worked as Juarez’s agent in Arkansas and now in Kentucky.

“He is aggressive, he is smart, he finishes strong,” Lukas said. “He also listens and does what we ask him to do. If we get beat (in the Preakness), I don’t think it’s going to be Nik Juarez that beats us… I watched him ride, and he rode for me a year or so prior a couple of times. I liked him a lot. He came by and said he had switched agents to Gary Stevens, and I have always had a great rapport with Gary. He rode a lot for me. I wanted to help Gary. So I was able to help Gary, and I was able to help Nik.”

Stevens has said that the extra energy American Promise has shown in training since the Derby reminds him of the Lukas-trained Oxbow, who finished sixth in the 2013 Kentucky Derby (G1) but led all the way to make the 50-year-old Stevens the oldest jockey to win the Preakness. Now Stevens is seeking his first Triple Crown victory as an agent.

“First of all, Nik has a great personality,” Stevens said. “He’s a great communicator. He’s very honest when he’s sharing what he’s feeling on horses. He gets along with Wayne perfect.”

On Friday, Juarez rides three stakes for Lukas: the Black-Eyed Susan on Princess Aliyah, Pimlico Special (G3) with Just Steel and Allaire du Pont Distaff aboard Lemon Muffin, plus an allowance race for his old friend McMahon. Besides American Promise, he rides Saturday’s Chick Lang (Perfect Force) and Spendthrift Farm Sir Barton (Bestfriend Rocket) for Lukas.

Before he left for Baltimore, Juarez said, “It will be a good turnout for the Preakness. I’m excited to see my friends and family. And I’m real excited for a crab cake from Jimmy’s Famous Seafood.”

Carol Linton, infection prevention manager at Lorien Health Services in Carroll County, was working the day Nik won the Black-Eyed Susan. But she made sure to be off this Friday and Saturday. She’ll be accompanying another Preakness horse — she doesn’t know who yet — to the post, then will congregate just off the track with the other pony riders, as they do between races.

“The hard part about it is I can’t see it, but I can hear it,” she said. “There’s a bunch of us standing there together. I already told them, whatever race he wins, I’m galloping that horse down the track to the winner’s circle, throwing the reins to somebody and then getting in the winner’s circle with Nik. That’s been done before. You just can’t take your pony in the winner’s circle. Hopefully I’m going to be in a lot of win pictures both days.

“I think he has a strong possibility of winning the Preakness. I hope the stars align. Just thinking about it makes me get tears in my eyes,” she added. “We’ve been in this for a long time, many generations. It’s about time we win the Preakness.”