Richard Migliore
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Richard Migliore (born March 14, 1964, in Babylon, New York) is a retired American jockey whose mounts have ranged from Fourstardave to Wando to Funny Cide to Kip Deville to Hidden Lake to Desert Code.[1]
Called "The Mig," which is a type of Russian fighter jet, for his tenacious style of riding, he lives with his wife, Carmela, and children in Millbrook, New York.
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[edit] Early life
Migliore grew up in a crowded home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. When he was 11, his family moved into a bigger house. On a bike ride, Migliore turned down an unexplored lane that ended in a dressage horse farm called Hunting Hollow Farm, which was managed by Hugh Cassidy. Cassidy gave Migliore his first chance to work with horses and his first riding lessons. Before he was 13 years old, Migliore and a few friends bought ponies to start a pony-ride business. The pony rides turned into pony racing on the athletic fields of the Brentwood schools. They broke the ponies themselves and rode them, charging a $5 entry fee for others who raced. The day Migliore saw Willie Shoemaker win the Marlboro Cup aboard Forego on TV, he decided to be a "real" jockey.
[edit] Riding career
Trainer Stephen A. DiMauro gave him his first job at a track and taught how to ride a race horse. Migliore grew to be only 5'4” and weigh 112 pounds.
His first mount was on September 29, 1980, and his first win was less than a month later aboard Good Grip at Meadowlands Racetrack. During 1981, Migliore won the Eclipse Award as the leading apprentice jockey at the age of 17.
On May 30, 1988, Migliore suffered a near-fatal neck injury when he was thrown from Madam Alydar at Belmont Park. The accident was featured on the television series Rescue 911 in 1992. In July 1999, he seriously fractured his right arm in another spill at Belmont and was out of the races for six months.
Two days before the Breeders' Cup run at Lone Star Park in Texas, his horse, Paulina, fell on him. He rode in the Sprint anyway, mounted on Bwana Charlie, and in the Mile on Artie Schiller. As he said, "My desire superseded my logic." Later he found he had a broken wrist, broken ribs and a broken pelvis. Sidelined for two months, he took up yoga, which he grew to love. As he says, "It even keeps my weight down."
Migliore was the recipient of the Eddie Arcaro Award from the New York Turf Writers Association as outstanding jockey in 1981 and 1985. He won the 2003 Mike Venezia Memorial Award from the New York Racing Association for "extraordinary sportsmanship and citizenship." This award is based on the votes of fellow jockeys, turf writers and an online vote by fans, and is given in memory of Mike Venezia, who was killed on October 13, 1988, in a spill at Belmont Park. Also that year, Migliore was honored at the 2003 Thurman Munson Awards Dinner by the Association for the Help of Retarded Children. In 2005, he was awarded his second consecutive NYTB Jockey of the Year title, riding the New York-bred winners of 58 races and winning $2,246,398.
In 2005, he won the Aqueduct Racetrack spring meet. His 4,000th career win occurred on February 4, 2005. He won twice that day, once on Hurricane Erica and the second time on Benjamin Baby. Migliore became the 18th active jockey to reach that milestone and the 43rd in history to win that many races.
In October 2006, Migliore announced his move to the California tracks after a career spent on the East Coast. On November 15, he rode his first mount at Hollywood Park Racetrack.
On February 23, 2008, it was announced that Migliore won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in a vote of his peers from coast to coast. The Woolf Award is one of the most coveted trophies in all of racing, honoring riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual and the sport of Thoroughbred racing.
In the summer of 2008, Migliore announced he would be returning to the East Coast for the prestigious Saratoga meet. At the end of the Saratoga meet, Migliore further announced that he would be relocating to NY.
On October 25, 2008, at Santa Anita Park racetrack, in Arcadia, CA, Migliore won his first Breeders' Cup World Championship (the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint, also the first time this race had been run) when he rode Desert Code to victory.[2]
On May 4, 2010, he underwent an operation in which two plates and 8 screws were inserted into his neck due to a fall from his mount, Honest Wildcat, at Aqueduct on January 23, 2010. During a press conference held at Belmont Racetrack before the draw for the Belmont Stakes, Migliore announced his retirement. He left the jockey colony as the winner of 4,450 races, including 362 stakes and 25 Grade 1 events.
"It's no big surprise why we're here; my career as a jockey is over," he said. "It's not by choice. I was in the doctor's office on Wednesday of last week and he assured me that I would never ride another thoroughbred again. He works on many NFL players and said if you have a level two fusion, you have to retire. I have a level four fusion." [3]
