CHRIS EMIGH GETS WIN NUMBER 4,000 THURSDAY AT ARLINGTON

By Grant LagRange —-

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. (July 4, 2019) –

Chris Emigh secured win number 4,000 on Thursday at Arlington International Racecourse aboard Mr. Haney in the first race of the day.

Emigh, who had been sitting on 3,999 wins since June 29, was scheduled to ride six of the eight races on the Thursday card, but wasted no time getting the job done.

A career that began in the late 80’s with his first win, to win number 4,000, Chris Emigh remains humble,

“There’s probably six thousand people and over thousands of horses that I have to thank,” Emigh explained in the winner’s circle after his milestone win. “It’s not just me, it’s everyone involved. I’m just lucky enough to get on the horses back and ride them for two minutes.”

Emigh has always been a proponent for hard work and dedicating himself to being the best jockey that he can be. With over 29,000 starts under his belt, finally getting to this milestone victory was emotional for the veteran jockey.

“It’s pretty great to get this done,” Emigh said on the walk back to the jockey’s room. “When you’re a kid you come up with a number. That number for me was 4,000 and I knew if I kept working hard every year I would someday get there and we’re finally here.”

Emigh was able to sit off the pace setters in the early stages of the 7 1/2 furlong journey. When the early leaders started to get tired with one eighth of a mile left in the race, Emigh and Mr. Haney kicked it into gear and went by to score a half-length victory.

“He’s so tall and he has one giant stride,” Emigh said of his 4-year-old gelding Mr.Haney who is trained by Eduardo Rodriguez. “I knew if those top two just got a little tired we could catch them. My horse got a little tired there at the end too but I knew with his big stride we could outlast the others and we got the job done.”

Emigh, who is the third winningest rider at Arlington, was asked if people would see win number 5,000 there at Arlington as well, Emigh replied with a grin,

“Yep, that’s the plan, the drive for five starts now.”