Jockey Rico Walcott is displaying his riding experience in his short time at Woodbine Racetrack.

 For fans of Woodbine Racetrack, Rico Walcott may be a newbie to the colony but his riding career goes way back to Northland Park which is no longer around as a racetrack.  It's quite clear that he has been around in the trenches and he is quite an experienced rider and a jockey who knows how to ride the big races at crunch times.

Rico Walcott has had over 6500 mounts in North America and over 1500 first-place finishes to add to his portfolio.  The last time Woodbine had a Rico as a champion it was Eu-Rico Dasilva who was exceptional in his time as a jockey before he retired.  Not jumping ahead of myself and proclaiming that Rico Walcott is a Woodbine racetrack champion jockey but he surely plays the part, confidently.

Rico Walcott waits patiently - photo by Nitro1photo

Walcott's career has him winning thirteen graded stake races with all of them being grade threes.  Not bad for a guy who spent most of his career in western Canada with very few to no other graded stake races other than grade three races ever coming that way.  He has won the Canadian Derby five times and the BC Derby four times.  A closer look also shows that he won the Oklahoma Derby at Remington Park once with Broadway Empire in 2013 while teaming up with Trainer Robertino Diodoro.

In 2023 when Rico Walcott made a decision to ride at Woodbine for the season/meet it was a decision that was met with excitement by fans if you knew his history as a rider out west in Canada.  The previous year in 2022 Walcott rode most of his races at Century Mile Downs in Alberta winning 53 races, 52 second place finishes, and 42 third place finishes that year from 250 mounts.  At Woodbine in 2023, Walcott has managed to win 12 races from 83 mounts and has landed the Kingsplate's local favorite kaukokaipuu which is trained by Tedston Holder.  

I spoke briefly with Rico and he was evenly excited and confident with his chances with Kaukokaipuu in this year's running of the King's Plate at Woodbine racetrack.

Rico Walcott

One of Walcott's better-ridden races seen lately was Walcott riding Midnight in Malibu at odds of 32-1 and finishing first in the Allowance Optional claimer which was run at One mile and one Sixteenth over the All weather track at Woodbine.  It was a race of pure advantageousness on Walcott's behalf and it worked out perfectly to his benefit with Midnight in Malibu taking off around the field at the half way  point and putting distance between the rest of the field.  As they arrived at the wire the field was closing in on Midnight in Malibu but it was all too late on that day for the other contenders.

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