Jose Miguel Mena Rodriguez (November 6, 1986 – October 31, 2021) was a Peruvian-born American

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 ...

who had been competing in the United States from 2003 until his death. He won his 2,000th race in 2020. He was from a Peruvian family involved in horse racing. His father Jose is a retired jockey. Mena's first horse racing related memory was of

Grozny Grozny ( rus, Грозный, p=ˈgroznɨj; ce, Соьлжа-ГӀала, translit=Sölƶa-Ġala), also spelled Groznyy, is the capital city of Chechnya, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the 2010 census, it had a pop ...

winning the

Derby Nacional The Derby Nacional is a Peruvian Thoroughbred horse race held annually at Hipódromo de Monterrico in Lima, Peru. Open to three-year-olds, the Peruvian Derby is raced on dirt over a distance of 2400 metres (approximately miles). Held in late Novem ...

. Mena won two Grade 1 races in his career, and in 2015 he swept the major three-year-old stakes races at the Fair Grounds aboard

International Star International Star is a retired American Thoroughbred racehorse. He accumulated 171 points for the 2015 Road to the Kentucky Derby which is the most points ever for non- extended series events accumulated in the series. He had wins in the Grey ...

. Mena was killed on October 31, 2021, when he was struck by the driver of a vehicle as a pedestrian on Interstate 64 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Year-end charts

References

1986 births 2021 deaths Peruvian jockeys American jockeys Sportspeople from Lima Peruvian emigrants to the United States Road incident deaths in Kentucky Pedestrian road incident deaths {{Peru-sport-bio-stub