Frank "Frankie" Lovato Jr. (born January 30, 1963, in Cheverly, Maryland) is a retired American Thoroughbred jockey, inventor, and educator of horse racing. His racing career spanned from 1979 until 2004. Including one additional race in 2012, Lovato rode a total of 15,604 mounts, with 1,686 wins and finishing in the money on another 3,506. This total included wins in 111 stakes races at 25 different tracks. The horses he rode earned a total of $41,795,367.[1] In 1980 he won the Eclipse Award for Apprentice Jockey.[2] He later went on to invent a horse riding simulator called the Equicizer and founded an educational and training program called Jockey World.
Lovato is very likely the only rider to ever win the same stakes race twice in one meet. He was still an apprentice on August 6, 1980, when he rode Quintessential in the $100,000 DeWitt Clinton Stakes for trainer Johnny Campo at Saratoga Race Course. As the last horse, Move It Now, was preparing to load in a field of 11, the starter accidentally pressed the start button opening the gates and starting the race. With the favorite Move It Now still behind the gates, and other jockeys, assistant starters and horses completely surprised and unprepared, Lovato managed to break cleanly, made the lead and won aboard Quintessential. The race was declared official though a re-run of the race was created two weeks later to make up for the false start mishap. On August 25, the new race was run but under a different name, the West Point Stakes, in which Lovato and Quintessential went on to win for the second time.[3]
- ^ a b "Frank Lovato, Jr". Equibase. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
- ^ "Eclipse Awards (1971-Present): Outstanding Apprentice Jockey". Thoroughbred Racing Association. Archived from the original on 2014-02-03. Retrieved 2014-01-23.
- ^ 2005 Thoroughbred Times, May Edition by Bill Hiller