Jockey Corey Nakatani, One of the Best Riders in North America

Corey Nakatani has long been a fixture among the very best jockeys riding in the United States today. He has won many of the biggest races that are run in the United States, and has even been chosen by many European trainers to ride their top fillies, mares and colts when the biggest event of the year, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, comes along every year at the end of October or early in November.
Nakatani is not a jockey that favors one type of surface over another. Indeed, a look at his surefire Hall-of-Fame record shows conclusively that he has run many prestigious, Grade I events featuring lucrative purses sometimes in the millions of dollars, and he has won those races on natural dirt in the slop or on a fast track, on dry grass or wet grass, and on every type of synthetic, whether it be Polytrack or ProRide.
At the the age of 28 years old, Nakatani graduated in Castaic, California from jockey training school. In 1988, he won his very first race aboard a horse by the name of Blue King. One notable thing about Corey’s first win was the fact that it was, after a photo finish, determined to be a dead heat, making Nakatani the only jockey riding in the United States today who won his first race in an actual dead heat. He first gained national prominence in 1991 when, on the Friday before Kentucky Derby day at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Kentucky, he won the Kentucky Oaks in impressive fashion aboard a fine filly named Lite Light. He then won the Oaks again in 1996 atop Pike Place Dancer. Nakatani’s reputation as a major stakes jockey was secure at that point, but it was in the 1996 Breeders’ Cup that he really made himself a household name in the racing world.
He won two of the most prestigious Breeders’ Cup races in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (now known as the Ladies’ Classic) atop Jewel Princess and then won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint on a colt named Lit de Justice. Since 1996, Nakatani has totally dominated the Breeders’ Cup, and although he has yet to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, he has won a grand total of 4 times in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint alone, and 7 total Breeders’ Cup races.
2006 was a banner year for Nakatani, as on Memorial Day of that year he won his 3000th race at Hollywood Park. The one thing that Nakatani is still searching for is a Triple Crown victory, especially a Kentucky Derby victory. With the success that he has already had in racing, you can bet that Corey Nakatani will get plenty of chances at the Triple Crown races, whether it be the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, or the Belmont Stakes.