Louisville, Ky. – Less than two months before Kentucky derby, Junior Junior Alvarado prayed to God to heal it.
On March 23, Alvarado set up the horse period in Gulfstream Park in Findale Beach, Florida, when his pure blood suffered a heart attack, sending Alvarado from his chair. He was trimmed by another horse while he was on the floor that he tended to his, which resulted in a line fracture on the shoulder that would put him aside for three weeks.
Alvarado was disconsolate. His dream was winning the derby, and he felt that he had a legitimate opportunity this year with his sovereignty of horses. Alvarado was not sure if he would ever have a chance like this if he did not return on time.
“I have a lot of faith in God,” Alvarado said on Saturday about the mental challenge he faced. “Every day, since I received the injury, I kept telling God: ‘Please sat me, cure me. If you are destined to be, I know you will put me into action before the derby.”
Alvarado’s prayers were answered.
The Jockey recovered with a long time for race 151 for the roses, and led the sovereignty to victory on a muddy track on Saturday in Churchill Downs. It was the first victory in his Alvarado career at the Horse Racing Signature event after five previous losses.
Alvarado’s place was not only in danger in danger after falling in March, but also ran the risk of being replaced by a different pilot. But the day after Alvarado was discharged from the hospital, he received a call from the sovereignty coach Bill Mott, who assured Alvarado that the horse had to mount once he recovered.
“When Mr. Mott called me the day after I left the hospital, he gave me great peace of mind,” Alvarado said. “You do not understand that in the business often. This is the nature of the business: someone else can ride the horse, it is riding well and you can keep it.
“But having the peace of mind and being able to do what I needed to do was something I will always appreciate from Mr. Mott.”
Alvarado maintained his calm even after a second fall on Thursday, two days before the derby, when he fell from the caramel chip during the ninth race of the day.
While Alvarado literally He had to return to the horse, sovereignty was having a period of greater soft to Derby, according to Mott, even after finishing second in his most recent career under the Manny Franco rider at the end of March.
“He had no reservation about him,” Mott said in reference to sovereignty. “You have to go out and run the race, but the way I was doing the horse, I really couldn’t have asked for anything different in the last five weeks since its last race. Everything had gone without problems. Usually, to win this type of careers, you cannot have any problem in your training time or the way the horse is doing.”
Mott, who previously won the 2019 Kentucky derbyy with Horse Country House after a disqualification, said winning with his Alvarado “Regular Rider” made the result of Saturday the Saturday was particularly special.
Alvarado’s trip, of course, began long before his fracture in March or even his previous appearances in Derby. He started in Venezuela, where his father was a rider. He said that growing the only race he could see on television was the one he has just won in Churchill Downs.
First he told himself that it would simply be good to compete in the event. Later he wanted to win it.
“Today we did that,” said Alvarado. “I don’t know if I will be able to find the right words that can describe this feeling that I have now.”
