How rare is it for a trainer to also ride his/her horse?
 

I see 70 year old Frank Amonte, Sr., is riding the horse he trains at Suffolk. Amonte made news as the oldest jockey win a race at (then) 69 (also the oldest active jockey currently).

What I'm interested in here, though is: how rare is it for the trainer to also ride his/her horse?

Only one I could think of who occassionally did this was Alexandra Madigan, who had the distinction of being the breeder, owner, rider and trainer of a few winners in Kentucky years ago (this link http://www.webcom.com/~alauck/trc/trc97/trc0515.html has a brief note about one of her wins at Churchill Downs several years ago; it's the fifth article from the top).

I will be so damn happy if I could actually climb on a horse when I am 70?

Trainer-jockey combo
 

Another who has pulled double duty as trainer and jockey is Gennadi Dorochenko, who for the past several years has campaigned a small stable of low-priced claimers at Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields, and the Northern California Fair circuit. A couple of years ago, he took some of his string back east (maybe to Suffolk? I don't know--but apparently to a state that permits such activity; California doesn't). I never followed up on the report I heard about Dorochenko, so I don't know if he's won as a jockey/trainer. I tend to doubt it, inasmuch as he's always been a low-percentage conditioner at the meetings I've followed.

I suspect Dorochenko had some horse-backing experience in "old country" before he fled the old Eastern Bloc to ply his trade in the Land of the Free.

I know IL doesn't allow a trainer to ride in a race. Can have a trainers license or a jockeys license in IL, but not both. Les Ahrens tried to do that here about 10 years ago here, but was not allowed.

Of course, one can ride their own horses in the workouts and privately as well.

falconridge

I'm pretty sure Gennadi Dorochenko rode his horse about 2 years ago in a maiden race at Delaware Park and won at 50-1. A friend of mine is a Dorochenko fan and still talks about how he nailed that race due to his rare knowledge of Dorochenko's training pattern.

You're right Steve, but I wonder why? Does that also apply to harness - years ago, I saw owners training & driving their own in NY?

I believe same trainer/driver/owner is allowable for IL Harness, I could be wrong. Not sure why the difference in licensing requirements, nor why they really need to do that with the TBs.

As far as standardbreds go and to the best of my knowledge, all states and Canadian provinces allow a person to simultaneously posess a breeder, owner, trainer, and driver license (provided that the person qualifies for each), and that person can be all or any combination for any given horse.