Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
From Davie to the Derby
Tyler Gaffalione, 22, has taken the fast track to the Kentucky Derby.
Talk about good breeding. Tyler Gaffalione’s steep career path, which will include his first Kentucky Derby mount Saturday at age 22, has roots that run four decades deep.
His grandfather, Bobby Gaffalione, rode more than 3,200 races in a career that began in 1976. His father, Steve Gaffalione, won more than 800 races in a 20-year career.
Tyler Gaffalione, of Davie, who turned pro just shy of three years ago, already has three more graded stakes victories than his father and grandfather combined. Even more impressive? Gaffalione already owns an Eclipse Award — a North American thoroughbred racing honor neither his father nor grandfather nor most jockeys can claim.
A rising star, Gaffalione headed into his first Derby being courted to ride two horses. On Sunday, Gaffalione announced he would take on the Todd Pletcher-trained Patch, the one-eyed horse he rode to a second-place finish in the Louisiana Derby in April, over Fast and Accurate, the horse he pi-
loted to the win in March’s Spiral Stakes at Turfway Park.
The in-the-money finishes in those Kentucky Derby preps were the capstones of an outstanding winter campaign during which he finished third in the standings at Gulfstream Park, his home track. Neither of those wins, of course, approaches the significance of a Kentucky Derby victory — and Gaffalione understands the magnitude of the opportunity.
“This is what we work for our whole lives,” he said. “I never thought the opportunity would come this early. Maybe in 10 years if I get lucky, but never this early.”
Gaffalione was given his first pony by age 4. Even as a kid, following his father around Calder, Gulfstream and Hialeah, he realized his calling.
Gaffalione rode on the track with his dad during morning workouts until he reached his early teens, when he began to work horses on his own. He attended Western High School before moving to Central Florida with his father after his parents divorced.
Steve Gaffalione said he saw his son’s potential when Tyler was 13 and the two were in Ocala. The teenager was on a horse whose assignment was to try and chase down a target horse in the stretch.
“He was just flat down on this horse. I saw that determination and I thought, ‘What have we got here?’ ” Steve Gaffalione said. “I grew up in this business and I have seen a number of great riders, but that day I knew he was going to be really special.”
Tyler Gaffalione continued working horses throughout high school, and after graduation — on Sept. 5, 2014 — he began his career at Gulfstream. Two days later, in his third start, he won his first race.
Gaffalione went on to lead all apprentice jockeys during the Hallandale Beach track’s champion winter meet, placing ninth overall with 32 wins. Capturing riding titles in both the spring and summer meets in 2015, he finished his apprenticeship with 208 wins. The feat landed him among Eclipse finalists for the year’s Outstanding Apprentice Jockey award.
That he might win didn’t much register with Gaffalione, who, on the day after his apprenticeship ended, rode four winners at Gulfstream.
“The whole goal was to win races and make a name for myself,” he said.
Gaffalione netted the Eclipse on his way to finishing the winter season eighth in wins and tallying a meet-leading 96 last summer, including five Florida Sire Stakes victories.
Top trainers, including Pletcher and Mike Maker, who winter at Gulfstream, took notice. Gaffalione earned the call on Fast and Accurate in the Spiral after winning for Maker aboard Tagleeb in January’s W.L. McKnight Handicap.
Gaffalione said he received his instructions on how to handle the horse from a surprise source — not Maker, but from Olympic skier Bode Miller, a racing enthusiast. Gaffalione piloted the 24-1 long shot to a 3⁄4-length win and into view of the Kentucky Derby.
He rode Patch to a late running finish behind Girvin in Louisiana. The horse, unraced as a 2-yearold, heads into the Kentucky Derby looking at his fourth career start. Still, Gaffalione sees a tremendous upside.
“When I rode him in Louisiana, we had the inside position,” Gaffalione said. “He was still real green and it was his first time around two turns, but he really showed a lot of heart and a lot of guts to compete with a horse like Girvin.
“His pedigree shows that he will love the distance.”
Gaffalione has ridden only once at Churchill Downs. Any memories he has of the Kentucky Derby come from TV. But in a very real way, Gaffalione is not so distant. Grandfather Bobby Gaffalione, who died in 2004, rode Rexson’s Hope to 10th place in the 1984 Run for the Roses.
“I got to learn from my father’s mistakes and my grandfather’s mistakes and they have really helped me,” Gaffalione said. “They always had my back and they always pushed me to be better and never accepted mediocrity. They were great role models.”
Faced with negotiating the 20-horse field for Saturday’s race, for which Patch has drawn the outside post, this pair of thoroughbreds will be put to the test.
“If you think about all of the history there, the great riders and the great horses and the great trainers that were there, it’s incredible,” Gaffalione said. “I hope I don’t get too caught up in the moment, but you never know.”