Horse Family's Ride

'Truly A Natural': From Adolescent Runaway To Winning Steeplechase Jockey, Family Man

Manuel Aguilera proves you don’t have to be born into racing royalty to jump in the game

By: Betsy Burke Parker/Temple Gwathmey Steeplechase Foundation

To appreciate the complexity behind 9 year old Pauly Aguilera’s (left, ©Tisa Della-Volpe) dream of someday being champion jump jockey, consider what brought the Maryland third-grader into horse racing.

In a sport populated mostly with lifers – sons and daughters of generations of horsemen and women, rare is the steeplechase leader not born into the game. It’s not so much that it is bluebloods: working lines are enough, but, typically, there’s a couple pages of pedigree behind almost everybody in racing.

Pauly Aguilera’s trip to the winner’s circle takes more twists and turns than the Alfred Hunt course at Glenwood Park, but everyone in his family agrees, it was a journey that began 25 years ago, 2,000 miles south of Maryland’s Hunt Valley. FINISH READING HERE

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