Gustavo Ávila (born June 14, 1938, in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

) is a retired

jockey A jockey is someone who rides horses in horse racing or steeplechase racing, primarily as a profession. The word also applies to camel riders in camel racing. The word "jockey" originated from England and was used to describe the individual ...

Thoroughbred horse racing Thoroughbred racing is a sport and industry involving the racing of Thoroughbred horses. It is governed by different national bodies. There are two forms of the sport – flat racing and jump racing, the latter known as National Hunt racing in t ...

. He is best known as the jockey who rode

Canonero II Cañonero II (April 24, 1968 – November 11, 1981) was a Venezuelan champion Thoroughbred race horse that may be best remembered for winning the first two legs of the 1971 U.S. Triple Crown, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. After t ...

to victory in two of the 1971 U.S. Triple Crown series, the

Kentucky Derby The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...

and

Preakness Stakes The Preakness Stakes is an American thoroughbred horse race held on Armed Forces Day which is also the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a Grade I race run over a distance of 9.5 furlongs () on ...

. Among his other accomplishments, Avila was the winner of the first Clásico del Caribe (1966) with Victoreado and was the leading rider at

La Rinconada Hippodrome La Rinconada Hippodrome ( es, Hipódromo La Rinconada) is a race track for Thoroughbred horse racing located in Coche, a neighborhood of south Caracas, Venezuela. It was designed by Arthur Froehlich and opened on July 5, 1959. This track is the ...

for five years.

References

Profile of Gustavo Avila
(Spanish language)

Churchill Downs 1938 births Living people Venezuelan jockeys Sportspeople from Caracas {{Horseracing-bio-stub