Richard Migliore (jockey)
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Richard Migliore (born March 14, 1964 in Babylon, New York) is a top caliber American jockey whose mounts have ranged from Artie Schiller to Big Apple Daddy to Funny Cide.
Called "The Mig," which is a type of fighter jet for his tenacious style of riding, he lives with his wife, Carmela, and children in Floral Park, 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, but even better, the outside was bigger too. 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 equestrain 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 Kentucky Derby 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, Steve DiMauro, gave him his first job at a track and taught how to ride a race horse. Lucky for 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.
In 1988 he came close to dying from a 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."
The Mig is 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 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 is the 18th active jockey to reach that milestone and the 43rd in history to win as many races.
Now, says The Mig, "Strive for five."
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.
