Richard Migliore

Horseracing personalities infobox


name = Richard Migliore
|caption =
occupation = Jockey
birthplace = Babylon, New York, United States
birth date = March 14, 1964
death date =
career wins = ongoing
race = Gallant Fox Handicap (1981)
Knickerbocker Handicap (1981)
Wood Memorial Stakes (1985)
Whirlaway Stakes (1985)
Kelso Breeders' Cup Handicap (1985)
Busher Stakes (1989)
Laurel Futurity Stakes (1991)
Flower Bowl Invitational Stakes (1991)
Monmouth Breeders' Cup Oaks (1991)
Delaware Handicap (1994)
Beldame Stakes (1997, 1989)
Gazelle Stakes (1989)
Manhattan Handicap (1989)
Iroquois Handicap (1992)
Remsen Stakes (1996)
Pegasus Stakes (1996)
Honorable Miss Handicap (1997)
Go For Wand Handicap (1997)
Mike Lee Handicap (1997, 1995)
Queens County Handicap (1997)
Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (1998)
Lake George Stakes (1998)
Cicada Stakes (1998)
First Flight Handicap (1998)
Sport Page Breeders' Cup Handicap (1998, 1984)
Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes (2000)
Dwyer Stakes (2000)
Red Smith Handicap (2000)
Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes (2000)
Cowdin Stakes (2000, 1998)
Demoiselle Stakes (2000, 1998)
Old Hat Stakes (1999)
Personal Ensign Handicap (2001)
Frank J. DeFrancis Memorial Dash Stakes (2002)
Lake Placid Handicap (2001, 1998)
Spinster Stakes (2001)
General Douglas MacArthur Handicap (2001)
Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (2001)
Ohio Derby (2002)
Saranac Stakes (2002)
Grey Breeders' Cup Stakes (2002)
Carter Handicap (2002)
Gallant Bloom Handicap (2003, 1998, 1996)
Ballerina Handicap (2003)
Fourstardave Handicap (2003)
Damon Runyon Stakes (2003)
E. P. Taylor Stakes (2003)
Stuyvesant Handicap (2003)
Belmont Lexington Stakes (2003)
Man o' War Stakes (2003, 1985)
Vagrancy Handicap (2003, 1981)
New York Stallion Series (2003, 1998, 1996, 1993, 1985)
Brooklyn Handicap (2004, 2003)
Ladies Handicap (2004, 2003. 1998)
Kent Breeders' Cup Stakes (2004)
Florida Derby (2004)
National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame Stakes (2004)
Jamaica Handicap (2004, 1996, 1986)
Noble Damsel Breeders' Cup Handicap (2005)
Stymie Handicap (2005, 1993)
Gotham Stakes (2005, 2003, 1985)
Distaff Breeders' Cup Handicap (2005, 2004, 1998, 1997)
Bernard Baruch Handicap (2005, 2003, 1985)
Victory Ride Stakes (2005)
Dominion Day Stakes (2006)
Kings Point Handicap (2006)
Indiana Derby (2006)
Toboggan Handicap (2006, 2003, 2002, 1999, 1997, 1985)
Fall Highweight Handicap (2006, 1997, 1987)
Pacific Classic Stakes (2007)
Frank E. Kilroe Mile Handicap (2007)
Hawthorne Gold Cup Handicap (2007, 2008)
Norfolk Stakes (United States) (2007)
Baldwin Stakes (2007)
awards = Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey (1981)
Eddie Arcaro Award from the New York Turf Writers Association
Mike Venezia Memorial Award (2003)
George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award (2008)
honours =
horses = Funny Cide, Archie Schiller, Fourstardave, Albert the Great, Kip Deville, Wando, Friends Lake, Say Florida Sandy. Student Council
updated = November 10, 2007

Richard Migliore (born March 14, 1964 in Babylon, New York) is an American jockey whose mounts have ranged from Fourstardave to Wando to Funny Cide to Kip Deville.

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 Garden City, New York, but works wherever the race horses are.

He's always loved animals, especially horses, ever since he was a child growing up in a crowded home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. When he was 11, his family moved into a bigger house where outdoors there was room for bike riding...and for horses. On one of his endless bike rides, he turned down an unexplored lane that ended in a dressage horse farm. It was a whole new world. Called Hunting Hollow Farm, it was managed by the respected Hugh Cassidy. Cassidy gave The Mig his first chance to work with horses and his first riding lessons. He loved it, but in dressage he found too much restraint. He wanted to open up and see how fast the horses could run. Before he was 13 years old, he 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. It was a bonanza. All the other kids were trained in equestrian style riding—they couldn't break, they couldn't rate, they couldn't decide when to turn it on, they didn't stand a chance. But the day Richard saw Willie Shoemaker win the Marlboro Cup up on the great Forego on TV, was the day he decided to be a "real" jockey. The way The Shoe rode Forego to beat Honest Pleasure was the way he rode his best pony Sally to beat all the other kids. He felt like a kindred spirit.

The trainer, Stephen A. DiMauro, gave him his first job at a track and taught how to ride a race horse. Migliore, he 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. He won the Eclipse Award in 1981 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. His accident was so spectacular it was featured on the television series "Rescue 911" in 1992. In July of 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 Archie 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 now loves. As he says, "It even keeps my weight down."

Richard 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. In that same year, he 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, as well as on February 4th, 2005, his 4,000th career race. His won twice that day, once on Hurricane Erica and the second time on Benjamin Baby. Richard Migliore is the 18th active jockey to reach that milestone and the 43rd in history to win as many races.

In October, 2006, Migliore announced his move to the California tracks after a career spent on the East Coast. On November 15th, 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.

References

* [http://www.ntra.com/stats_bios.aspx?id=1846 NTRA bio]