In the quiet morning hours at his Tampa Bay Downs barn, after his horses have worked out and been fed, Mother’s Restaurant Trainer of the Month Juan Arriagada has time to reflect on his journey to becoming the track’s two-time leading owner and a contender for the trainers title.
Both Arriagada’s late father, Raul Arriagada, Jr., and his grandfather, Raul, Sr., were trainers in Peru, and his father trained Al Khali there for his first three starts in 2008 before he was sold to U.S. interests, becoming a multiple graded-stakes winner for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
It’s hard for Arriagada, who turns 47 Thursday, to remember a time when he was not dedicated to learning all he could about racehorses. The Lima product became a jockey as a young man, riding about 300 winners in Peru and Chile, before emigrating in 2004 to the United States. He took his first job as a hotwalker for trainer Joe Orseno at Delaware Park and worked as an exercise rider for such notable trainers as Anthony Dutrow, John Ward, Rusty Arnold and Anthony Pecoraro.
There was no turning back, in either a literal or figurative sense. “For me, being at the barn and working with the horses makes me happy. When I first came to this country I was a hotwalker, and I’ve gone step by step,” said Arriagada, currently tied with defending champion Kathleen O’Connell atop the Oldsmar trainer standings with 13 winners apiece. “This country has given me so much, and I’m appreciative for what I have – my family, my animals, everything.
“I feel like I am blessed. You know how this game is – it’s ups and downs all the time, and I try not to let my expectations get too high. It’s better to keep everything quiet and try to do your best every day,” Arriagada said. “What’s happening right now is good, so I try to keep everything the same.”
In addition to his back-to-back Tampa Bay Downs Leading Owner titles, Arriagada was also the top owner by victories last summer at Delaware Park. He is atop this year’s Oldsmar owner standings with 13 winners (alone and in partnership).
Arriagada emphasizes the contributions of his family and crew to his professional success and personal well-being. His wife Alison, a former trainer, is one of the barn’s exercise riders, along with Darwin Diaz. Juan and Alison have a delightful 6 ½-year-old daughter, Tezza. Juan’s son Nicolas, a former jockey who rode his first career winner for his dad here in 2021 aboard 9-year-old gelding Native Hawk, finds time to help the old man with a few horses after his regular exercise job with trainer John Rigattieri.
While he owns and trains his own stock, Arriagada is also grateful for co-owners such as his father-in-law Steve Hassig, Stephen J. Derany and M. Robert Bosso. “This is a team. You take the good things that are happening in this barn right now, there are a lot of people involved,” Arriagada said.
He also is thankful for his grooms who handle a lion’s share of the day-to-day caretaking duties. “It doesn’t matter how much you pay them – it’s how hard they are working for you,” Arriagada said.
“You can’t put a price on that, and when the horse wins everybody is happy.”
Known primarily as a claiming trainer, Arriagada has already claimed (purchased for a predetermined price before a race) 10 horses at the meet. He’s had about an equal number claimed away, including three – more than 10 percent of his barn’s residents – on Jan. 1.
“This is the game. It shows people are thinking about me,” he said. “I don’t want to say I’m happy having three of my horses claimed on one day, but I’m happy people like my horses.”
Arriagada has proven he knows how to handle a real good horse. Probably his best was Estilo Talentoso, whom he purchased for $15,000 in 2019 as a 2-year-old at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June Two-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale. She went on to win the 2021 Grade III Bed o’ Roses Stakes at Belmont Park and to place in two Grade I stakes, finishing her career with earnings of $532,538. He purchased another 2-year-old filly, Estilo Femenino, for $9,500 in 2017, and she won her second start at Delaware that July.
A serious illness forced Arriagada to send her to the sidelines for a year, but she was rarin’ to go upon her return as a 3-year-old. She won an allowance/optional claiming race at Gulfstream and finished second in the Sugarloaf Key Handicap there to multiple graded-stakes winner Curlin’s Approval, after which Arriagada sold her for $350,000.
Arriagada walks with his horses from the barn to the paddock for their races and accompanies them on the return journey afterward. They are an extension of his identity as a horseman and as someone who is thankful to pursue this way of life.
“I never run my horses (against competition) over their head. I’m always running them where I think they can win,” he said. “When I claim a horse, I’m not trying to prove something to anyone. I enter them where they look good and try to make them feel good.”
Florida-breds look ready to roll. Count Gulfstream Park-based trainer Carlos David among those horsemen optimistic about reaping a windfall in Saturday’s Skyway Festival Day stakes offerings at Tampa Bay Downs.
Post time for thew first of 10 races is 12:30 p.m.
David conditions Florida-bred 3-year-old filly Win N Your In, the 2-1 morning-line favorite for the $150,000-guaranteed, 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Under the provisions of an agreement between the track and the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association, both the Gasparilla and the $150,000, 7-furlong Pasco for 3-year-olds pay additional monies to the top three finishers if they are Florida-breds.
Win N Your In, who is owned by Troy Johnson and Maritza Weston, was bred in the Sunshine State by Marion Montanari. She is a daughter of Win Win Win, who won the 2019 Pasco in stakes-record time, and is out of the Yes It’s True mare Hello Rosie.
Win Win Win tops the Ocala Stud roster for 2025, standing for a fee of $8,500. His biggest victory came in the 2020 Grade I Forego Stakes Presented by America’s Best Racing at Saratoga at the 7-furlong distance, raising Win N Your In’s connections’ hopes for the Gasparilla.
“I think (the Gasparilla) is a good spot for her,” David said. “Her last race (the mile-and-a-sixteenth FTBOA Florida Sire My Dear Girl Stakes, in which she faded to sixth) might have been a little demanding for her. Seven furlongs is what she prefers, so I think she belongs in this spot.”
All six of Win N Your In’s starts have come at Gulfstream Park. She is 3-for-6, including victories in the 6-furlong Sharp Susan Stakes against open company on Aug. 10 and the 7-furlong FTBOA Florida Sire Susan’s Girl Stakes on Oct. 19.
Miguel Vasquez will ride Win N Your In, as he has for all of her starts.
“I love Florida-breds. They’ll run anywhere,” said David. “You’re always afraid of the well-bred Kentucky horses, but when you have a chance to run for that extra money, you have to take advantage of it.”
Win N Your In is one of three Florida-bred fillies in the seven-horse Gasparilla. The others are trainer Brian Lynch’s Mrs Worldwide, who won the Sandpiper Stakes here on Dec. 7, and the Gerald Bennett-trained Vuela Paloma, who broke her maiden here that same day.
Two of the six Pasco entrants are Florida-breds: Naughty Rascal, who finished second for Bennett in the Dec. 7 Inaugural Stakes, and trainer Danny Gargan’s Rookie Card, who broke his maiden on Oct. 26 at the Belmont At The Big A meet. Those two might have a difficult time with 4-5 morning-line favorite Owen Almighty, Lynch’s Kentucky-bred stakes winner who is making his 3-year-old debut with jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., aboard.
The only Florida-bred vying for additional purse money in Saturday’s third stakes, the $100,000-guaranteed, mile-and-a-sixteenth Wayward Lass Stakes for older fillies and mares, is trainer Kathleen O’Connell’s 5-year-old mare Dream Concert.
Around the oval. Saturday’s card also includes the expected return to competition of 4-year-old colt Nutella Fella, who won the Grade I Hopeful Stakes in September of 2023 at Saratoga at odds of 54-1, in the ninth race. He incurred a hairline ankle fracture in his left hind leg soon afterward and did not return until last June, finishing third in the Grade I Woody Stephens. He then missed the rest of the year after being diagnosed with filling in the same ankle.
Owned by Bell Gable Stable and trained by Gary Contessa, Nutella Fella will face nine rivals in the 7-furlong event, which is also the Lambholm South Race of the Week. Junior Alvarado is the jockey.
Trainer Jose Francisco D’Angelo sent out two winners today. He won the second race with Arrogancy, a 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Fugget About It Racing Stable and ridden by Cipriano Gil. D’Angelo added the sixth race with Dr. Perry, a 6-year-old gelding owned by ProRacing Stable and ridden by Samuel Marin.
In addition to conducting Thoroughbred racing each Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Tampa Bay Downs is open every day for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.
