Kentucky Derby: The jockey who is too tall

Pavlovian, with jockey Edwin Maldonado aboard, trains on the track during morning workouts ahead of the running of the 152nd Kentucky Derby. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

(Michael Reaves via Getty Images)

This situation is different in that Gutierrez was the regular rider back then for a lot of horses trained by O’Neill and owned by J. Paul Reddam at their home base in Southern California. These days, Emisael Jaramillo tends to get first call for O’Neill’s mounts.

But Pavlovian was a special case. After his first eight races, he was nowhere close to the Kentucky Derby mix with just one win and all kinds of trouble getting out of the gate cleanly. At the Cal Cup Derby in mid-January, Pavlovian hopped in the air with his first step, slightly veered to his left, bumped with another horse and was shuffled back to last before closing to a solid third.

A tactical change was needed — as well as a new rider.

When O’Neill brought the horse to New Mexico for the Sunland Derby in mid-Feburary, he said Maldonado was the “fourth or fifth” rider down their list but was willing to sacrifice a mount in a stakes race at Santa Anita the same day to make it happen.

In that race, Pavlovian was throwing his head around a bit right before the gate opened but Maldonado managed to get him looking straight ahead and running from the first jump. Forwardly placed the entire way around, Pavlovian wore down Express Kid in the stretch and won by a nose, getting him on the path to Louisville.

“Credit to (Maldonado) for having faith in us that we weren’t putting him on a bum,” O’Neill said. “And it worked out great, him winning the way he did and Paul just being the most generous, loyal guy in the world immediately said, ‘Well, we’ve got a new rider for Pavlovian.’ So that was really cool.”

And Maldonado, who was born in Ohio but grew up in Puerto Rico, is grateful for the opportunity. While he has just shy of 1,700 wins to his credit, he has made his living largely in races far less glamorous. With just 20 graded stakes wins and only two Grade 1s on his résumé, it’s not easy to get rides in the biggest races.

“Just being here is a winner,” he said. “It really hasn’t hit me yet. We’ll see when the time comes. I tend to focus (under) pressure. I’m hard on myself. I love the game. I’m very competitive so it’s just a dream come true for me to be here. I have to slow down my excitement.”

Lack of Derby experience, however, doesn’t mean disaster. In 2022, Sonny Leon gave Rich Strike a picture perfect ride to the winners’ circle in his one and only Derby mount. Stewart Elliott, a journeyman at smaller tracks in the mid-Atlantic, got the ride on Smarty Jones as a 2-year old at Philadelphia Park and never looked back.

“It takes for you to believe in yourself,” Maldonado said. “Nobody’s going to believe for you. Mental toughness. It’s not easy. It’s a mental game, physical as well, but I think it’s more mental.”

That’s why Maldonado has spent a lot of time in his career reading, he said. Among the books he mentioned was “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne, a book that claims much of what happens to us is driven by our thoughts. While controversial and less than scientific, it’s the kind of thing Maldonado needed as he struggled with weight earlier in his career.

Though no fault of his own — he simply grew beyond the ideal jockey height of 5-foot-3 or 5-foot-4, making it hard to keep his weight down — it was a big challenge he had to overcome in an unforgiving sport where a pound or two on the back of a horse makes a huge difference.

“I eat fruits and vegetables,” he said. “Beyond eating, I take herbs, I take minerals. I cleanse my gut. After you do that once every six months, you’re good. It’s not (glamorous), but if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle without doing it the wrong way or the bad way, that’s what you have to do. In a way, I’m glad I got the opportunity now after 25 years that I’m a little more seasoned in this sport. But it all goes together, the food you eat and your brain. Your gut is your second brain.”

Maldonado’s height hasn’t hurt his prospects on Pavlovian, who looks like a live longshot (30-1 current odds) after backing up the Sunland Derby win with a near wire-to-wire win in the Louisiana Derby when he just got beat at the wire by Emerging Market. Though many handicappers will dismiss Pavlovian based on his first eight races, he performed like a different horse once Maldonado got on his back.

“He’s so athletic and he’s so light, he’s like a lizard on a log,” O’Neill said. “He’s just so good and has a great ability to stay off the horse’s mouth leaving there and let them find themselves in good position. At the end of the day 99% of this is all about the horse and they make trainers look smart, owners look smart and jockeys look brilliant. I think Edwin is humble enough and smart enough to realize that. Though his abilities have definitely changed the tactics and we’re seeing newfound speed we didn’t see before, it’s really the horse is evolving and he’s getting better and better and he’s coming into the race in a great space.”

Though a true speed dual in the Kentucky Derby would compromise the chances of anyone close to the lead, Maldonado is likely to get Pavlovian out of the gate quickly and have him forwardly placed coming out of the No. 16 post. If he can get that done and put him in a clear position at a good cruising speed, it’ll simply come down to whether the horse is good enough.

“I think there’s no strategy,” Maldonado said. “I think you have to be there in the first flight. It’s not a secret. It’s 20 horses. It’s gonna go fast. But he did it already. The Louisiana Derby was a big race for him. He went through the fire and proved he can hang with them.”