Aaron Tod Gryder (born June 5, 1970, in

West Covina, California West Covina is a suburban city in Los Angeles County, California, located east of Downtown Los Angeles in the eastern San Gabriel Valley and is part of Greater Los Angeles. The population for the city was 106,098 at the 2010 census. West Covi ...

) is an American

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

horse racing jockey.

Career

At age 16 in 1986, Gryder began his career as a professional jockey in

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Agua Caliente Racetrack Agua means water in Spanish. Agua may also refer to: Places * ''Agua de Dios'' (God's water), a municipality in Colombia * Volcán de Agua, a stratovolcano located in Guatemala Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Agua'' (film), a 2006 Argentin ...

. His first winner came in 1987 at Agua Caliente aboard Ragen Henry. Gryder returned to the United States to ride at

Santa Anita Park Santa Anita Park is a Thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, United States. It offers some of the prominent horse racing events in the United States during early fall, winter and in spring. The track is home to numerous prestigious races ...

. His first win came on long shot horse with no left eye named One Eyed Romeo. He later rode at

Hollywood Park Hollywood Park may refer to: Places United States * Hollywood Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California * Hollywood Park, Chicago, a neighborhood in North Park, Chicago, Illinois * Hollywood Park, Inglewood, an entertainment complex and m ...

as an apprentice jockey, and became the first and only apprentice jockey to ever win the Leading Rider title in the track's 75-year history. Gryder has also won several Leading Rider titles at Churchill Downs,

Arlington Park Arlington International Racecourse (formerly Arlington Park, the name was Arlington Park Jockey Club from as soon as 1948 up to 1955) was a horse race track in the Chicago suburb of Arlington Heights, Illinois. Horse racing in the Chicago reg ...

, Aqueduct Racetrack, and

Golden Gate Fields Golden Gate Fields is an American horse racing track straddling both Albany, California and Berkeley, California along the shoreline of the San Francisco Bay adjacent to the Eastshore Freeway in the San Francisco Bay Area. With the closing of the ...

. In 2009, Gryder rode Well Armed to a win in the world's richest race, the $6,000,000

Dubai World Cup The Dubai World Cup (Arabic: كأس دبي العالمي) is a Thoroughbred horse race held annually since 1996 and contested at the Meydan Racecourse (Arabic: ميدان) which in Arabic suggests a place wh ...

, finishing 14 lengths in front of Gloria De Campeao, the largest margin of victory in the history of the race. Gryder won the 2012 G1

Breeders' Cup The Breeders' Cup World Championships is an annual series of Grade I Thoroughbred horse races, operated by Breeders' Cup Limited, a company formed in 1982. From its inception in 1984 through 2006, it was a single-day event; starting in 2007, ...

Marathon on long shot Calidoscopio. At the time of his retirement, Gryder had more than 4,000 victories internationally, Beyond racing, Gryder appeared in

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

's ''

Dellaventura ''Dellaventura'' is an American crime drama television series created by Richard Di Lello, Julian Neil and Bernard L. Nussbaumer, that aired on CBS from September 23, 1997, to January 13, 1998. The show was based on the life of late NYPD detectiv ...

'' and ''

The Sopranos ''The Sopranos'' is an American crime drama television series created by David Chase. The story revolves around Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), a New Jersey-based Italian-American mobster, portraying his difficulties as he tries to balance ...

''. He has worked as an On-Air Analyst for

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

, NBC Sports,

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

, TVG Network, and HRTV. He was one of the six jockeys featured in

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily ...

's 2009 reality documentary, ''Jockeys''. Gryder retired from racing in 2020. He joined Stronach Group in 2021 as Vice President of racing industry relations.

Year-end charts

References

External links

Aaron Gryder on the NTRA site
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gryder, Aaron 1970 births Living people American jockeys Gryder, Aaron