Puerto Rico’s Ironman? Jockey Wins At Age 72 To Top North American Record

Puerto Rico’s Ironman? Jockey Wins At Age 72 To Top North American Record originally appeared on Paulick Report.

While 71-year-old jockey Perry Ouzts has been quietly setting records for career longevity in Ohio, there's another veteran rider in Puerto Rico who has the "Ironman" beat in one impressive category.

Jesús Guadalupe won three races at Camarero Race Track in 2023 at the age of 72, meaning he is likely the oldest jockey to win a race in North America (a record previously thought to be held by Ouzts).

Each of the wins came aboard a horse named Desirade, who is owned by his son Jesus Guadalupe’s Destiny Racing PR.

“It was an amazing experience,” said the younger Guadalupe. “I didn’t even know if we’d be able to do it.”

“When he was young, he was always there in the picture with me,” explained Guadalupe senior. “I told him, ‘What if we take a picture like an owner? I win for you, it’s different, you know.’”

Born on Nov. 6, 1950, Guadalupe still gallops eight to ten horses in the mornings for trainer Ramon Morales. He also continues to ride the occasional race at the track in Canóvanas, most recently getting a leg up in the afternoon on Jan. 24, 2025.

“My motto is: If you love what you do, if you do it well, regardless of your age, keep going, don't give up,” Guadalupe told the local paper, El Nuevo Dia.

That motto has served as a beacon for the Puerto Rican jockey, whose career has seen plenty of ups and downs.

Guadalupe grew up close to a track that has long since closed down, but he remembers seeing the horses and dreaming about becoming a jockey. When he turned 16, he asked an owner from his neighborhood to help him get a job at the track.

“I said, ‘Maybe one day I’ll be a jockey, because they have good money and drive around in new cars all the time,’” he remembered. “There was no jockey school then. You have to break from the gate every Tuesday and Thursday for a year, then to get a license, you have to ride in three apprentice races in the afternoon.

“I won all three of them! I was supposed to be a star when I start, but when I was with the real jockeys in the real race the first time, I didn’t know what to do and I panicked.”

Ultimately, Guadalupe figured it out, and after a couple of years in Puerto Rico, he made the move to the United States. Guadaupe said he lost his “bug” in New York, and won “lots of races” at Garden State and Philadelphia Park, perhaps as many as 350.

Things took a turn in May of 1977, when Guadalupe and four fellow riders were charged in a criminal indictment with race-fixing in New Jersey during the period between Dec. 1, 1974, and May 27, 1975. Guadalupe was found guilty, following a criminal jury trial, for conspiracy to prearrange the results of a horse race, as well as aiding and abetting to prearrange the results of a horse race, and wound up serving 18 months in the Youth Correctional Institution Complex.

Guadalupe then went to cosmetology school in 1982, learning the trade of a barber to support himself. After four years of cutting hair, he applied for and was granted a license to resume his jockey career in Puerto Rico.

He also applied three times to have his jockey’s license reinstated in New Jersey, in 1986, 2005, and 2007. Each time he was denied, despite issuing an apology and having the race-fixing incident expunged from his record. Officials from Puerto Rico, where Guadalupe has ridden without incident since 1986, also issued letters of recommendation to the New Jersey Racing Commission, all to no avail.

“They compared me with Pete Rose,” Guadalupe said. “I had no chance to get the license back.

“These are the situations you learn from. When things get bad, you have to move on. And I see it on the positive side: if I hadn't come from New Jersey to Puerto Rico, I wouldn't have had my son.”

In Puerto Rico, Guadalupe continued to ride in races with regular success through 2017. He became the only jockey to pilot a Saint Croix Triple Crown winner, Prince Crystal, in 2009.

“There are lots of good riders over here in Puerto Rico, and not a lot of horses for too many good riders,” Guadalupe explained. “Puerto Rico is a tough meet, believe it or not; jockeys that win 20-30 races a year here, those are the best. Riding three or four horses a day, that was a good day.”

There were plenty of broken bones along the way, of course. Guadalupe said he broke his right hip, left shoulder, tibia, wrists, multiple fingers, and both collarbones over the years, but the worst accident occurred at St. Croix when a horse tried to jump the rail with him aboard, but missed. The horse’s head slammed into Guadalupe’s face and knocked him unconscious for six hours. Ultimately, doctors determined that he had fractured his cheekbone, and a plastic surgeon repaired it with “six or seven screws.”

“My face was swollen for six weeks, but I rode like that,” said Guadalupe. “When the swelling went down, it was just like before!”

When Guadalupe turned 50 years old in 2000, he began to struggle to get mounts. He started galloping for Ramon Morales in the mornings that year, and rode fewer races in the afternoons. Eventually, in 2017, he heard the track was looking for a steward, so he tried that position. It only lasted four years.

“I said, ‘I’ve been riding for a long time, so maybe doing something else is good.’ But I didn’t take to being retired,” Guadalupe said, laughing. “I don’t want to be sitting, watching races all day long. And when you make a decision, they don’t like a decision I make, so my friends were always getting mad at me. I said, ‘This is not for me.’”

After four years in the stewards’ stand, Guadalupe was 70 years old. He decided to return to galloping in the mornings for his old friend, Morales, but the journey back to the saddle wasn’t easy at that age.

“It took me a long time to get fit,” he said. “I thought it was gonna be easy, but I would get dizzy, sweat like crazy, and get home and not be able to walk. My wife said, ‘You’re crazy!’

“I said to my son, ‘I think I’m not gonna make it. I’m gonna quit. I can’t gallop horses anymore.’

“He was the one who told me to start running to get strong again. I listened to him, since he likes to go to the gym all the time, lifting weights, jogging more every day. When I started getting fit, I thought, ‘Maybe I can ride races again.’

“Right now, I feel like a person who is 50 years old. I jog two days a week, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, and I take care of myself very well.”

His son began owning a few racehorses in 2020, and as Guadalupe began to regain his fitness, the two hatched a plan: win a race together.

“I could ride a race tomorrow if I want, because I only weigh 114,” Guadalupe said. “But I don’t want to.”

His son explained: “In Puerto Rico, there are a lot of races with 12 or 14 horses, and not all of them are healthy, so he’s a bit scared to get hurt on a horse he doesn’t know. He has more security in my horses, because obviously I’m not going to put him on a horse that’s not in good shape.”

The elder Guadalupe rode his first race back in 2022, but it took until 2023 to get that elusive trip to the winner’s circle.

“I didn’t win with the first one I rode for him,” Guadalupe said. “But we got it done.”

The local statistician, Hector Cotto, credits Guadalupe with 755 career wins in Puerto Rico. Will he add any more to that total?

“I feel good,” Guadalupe said. “You never know.”

This story was originally reported by Paulick Report on Aug 4, 2025, where it first appeared.

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