Stable Notes by Mike Ahrens: Friday, June 19, 2020

There's a new face in the jockey colony this year at Ruidoso Downs and he's wasted no time making an impression in a big way. Twenty-year-old Luis Fuentes scored four victories in a single card on Saturday, June 6, and heading into this weekend has amassed 11 victories from 29 mounts with three seconds and four thirds to place him atop the thoroughbred rider's standings over Alfredo Juarez, Jr., who has eight wins from 33 mounts with eight seconds and three thirds.

Luis Fuentes is the younger brother of Ruben and Miguel, the former a jockey in Southern California and the latter a mainstay on the southern New Mexico circuit for years. But to start his brief career, Luis ventured around the country, riding in Philadelphia, southern California, Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and, last summer, Prairie Meadows in Iowa. "An agent from Oaklawn that goes to Prairie Meadows ended up calling me and telling me that I would do pretty good over there. I did alright, I did pretty good, I liked it," the young rider said. But following last summer in Iowa, he returned to the area here to ride at Zia Park followed by the winter in El Paso at Sunland Park and now Ruidoso. "Family's here, it's familiar, I grew up here so it's comfortable being here." As for his good start to this meet, he said "I knew we were coming in with some business. We've been working a lot for big barns, Todd [Fincher], Joel [Marr] and Casey [Lambert]. So we've got pretty good business." With such business and the fact that, as Fincher said of him, "He rides smart and always has a horse to finish with," big things from this young rider are expected.