OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Jimmy Jerkens has been a fixture on the New York Racing Association circuit for half a century. In his youth, he worked for his father, the Hall of Fame trainer, H. Allen Jerkens, before going out on his own in 1997.
Over the last 25 years, the younger Jerkens carved out a fine career of his own that included multiple victories in New York signature events such as the Travers, Woodward, Suburban, and Brooklyn. In 2005, Jerkens won the Breeders’ Cup Mile with Artie Schiller. In 2007, he won the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile with Corinthian, who earlier that year won the prestigious Metropolitan Handicap.
To Jerkens, 64, those successes seem like an eternity ago. That is why, next month, Jerkens will leave New York – and the United States – and head to Saudi Arabia in May to train for Prince Faisal bin Khalid Al Saud. He has a two-year contract and will have a string of 50 to 60 horses.
“I won’t be the only trainer, but I’ll have the cream of the crop,” Jerkens said.
Jerkens said it “is ultimately their wish to get involved in American racing.”
Jerkens has decided to take this opportunity in large part due to recent struggles here in the United States. His stable has been reduced to about 10 horses. Though he recently won the Sir Shackleton Stakes with Weyburn, it was just his fourth stakes win since 2020. Since the start of 2021, Jerkens has won 16 races from 155 starters. Though he had two starters in on Friday’s Aqueduct card, Jerkens had gone just 2 for 10 through the first 110 days of 2023.
“Can’t get going here,” Jerkens said. “Built up a lot of debt. Not enough happening fast enough. It’s hard driving through the gates seven days a week knowing you’re losing money. Hope can only last so long. It just hasn’t been happening.”
While grateful for this new opportunity, Jerkens was melancholy when thinking of having to leave the United States to get good horses again.
“It’s really hard to do,” Jerkens said. “I’m really proud of what we accomplished. We won a lot of big and prestigious races with very few starters compared to others. The last three years, it hasn’t been good and it doesn’t look like it’s going to improve enough to stay.”
Jerkens said his wife, Shirley, a teacher, will join him in Saudi Arabia after her school year ends.
Entering Friday, Jerkens has won 846 races from 4,249 runners. His horses earned $61,420,803. In 2010, he won the Travers with Afleet Express and four years later he ran 1-2 in the Travers with V. E. Day and Wicked Strong. Arguably his best horse was Artie Schiller, the 2005 BC Mile winner, who won seven stakes in a career in which he went 10 for 22 with $2,088,853 in earnings.
Shaman Ghost may have been his most accomplished horse, with a record of 8 for 17 and earnings of $3,859,311. That horse won the Queen’s Plate, Woodward, Santa Anita Handicap, and Pimlico Special.
The New York-bred Effinex won two runnings of the Grade 2 Suburban and finished second to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah in the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Jerkens trained Quality Road for his first four starts, which included victories in the Grade 1 Florida Derby and Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. After an injury derailed the horse’s bid to make the Kentucky Derby, owner Ed Evans moved the horse to Todd Pletcher.
Other Grade 1 winners trained by Jerkens include Delta Prince, Preservationist, and Christmas Kid.
