Wade’s holding reins on early retirement
Successful jockey to ride 6 stakes at Texas Champions
Lindey Wade rides in six of seven Texas Champions stakes Friday and Saturday nights at Sam Houston Race Park.
Wade brings to each event an uncommon mindset among his peers. In his prime at 25, the Louisiana native already ponders that inevitable day when he tugs a saddle off a thoroughbred and walks into his next career.
Like most jockeys, he turned pro as a teen.
In those early days, Wade revealed a sense of where he was going. If not immune to career-wrecking choices made by other jockeys, he always has displayed a sturdy resistance to them.
Thrifty but competitive
If only from afar, Wade knew of champion riders like Bill Shoemaker, Patrick Valenzuela and Garrett Gomez. They squandered dollars that bank accounts or investments could have guarded. Wade chose not to be undisciplined. His best skill with money seems to be gripping it tightly.
“I started my career being very conservative with dollars,” he said. “I’m still that way. I was able to buy a home in Oklahoma City.”
His annual riding cycle brings him to Sam Houston, then Grand Prairie’s Lone Star Park and on to Remington Park, where his home is.
Despite Wade’s thrifty ways off the track, there’s nothing reserved in his riding style.
“I’ve always been very competitive,” he said. “If we’re racing for a ham sandwich, I still want to win.”
National jockey standings list his purse earnings at about $2 million last year and $2.3 million in 2014. Winning jockeys customarily gross 10 percent of a race’s prize money, from which they pay a variety of expenses.
Riding in six SHRP $50,000 stakes races within 24 hours could ensure a booming January. The winning jockey earns $3,000 from each purse.
On Friday, Wade has mounts on Lasting Bubbles in the Yellow Rose of Texas and Molly’s Honor in the San Jacinto.
On Saturday, he rides Jump in Line in the Spirit of Texas, Witt Six in the Star of Texas, Jet Over in the Groovy, and P Millers Clock in the Richard King.
New career at 30
Only Texas-bred horses are eligible for the seven feature events. The programs begin at 7:10 p.m. Friday and 6:15 p.m. Saturday.
Each race brings Wade closer to decision time. When will the 115-pound rider try something different?
He has convinced himself not to become an older jockey who fights weight problems daily, rebounds from injury after injury, and pleads to trainers perceiving a talent dip that he is as good as ever.
“Maybe when I’m 30, I’ll move on to something new,” Wade said. “I don’t know what’s next in my life, but I’ll be deciding what that will be.”
“I’ve always been very competitive. If we’re racing for a ham sandwich, I still want to win.” Jockey Lindey Wade