Antonio Fresu Found His “Happy Place” And Now Has A Big-Race Itch To Scratch
Two Breeders’ Cup near misses and his first Kentucky Derby experience are fuelling the Italian jockey’s ambitions in his third season Stateside.
ANTONIO FRESU will have been resident in Southern California for two years this April and in that time the Italian has established himself as a top rider on the circuit, but he wants more, he has Breeders’ Cup ambitions and a Kentucky Derby hunger to satisfy.
That’s not to say he’s at all dissatisfied with how things are going at Santa Anita and Del Mar: as he tells Idol Horse, Southern California is “my happy place, that’s where I want to stay,” and that’s understandable given he had a 156-win campaign in 2024, with his mounts earning more than US$11.1 million.
Yet, at the same time, he has sat at the table at North America’s biggest day of all and he wants to experience more of that; above all, he wants to know what Kentucky Derby victory tastes like.
“I was impressed when I got the ride in the Kentucky Derby, I thought it was probably the best experience of my life, even though I didn’t win it,” he says, paddock-side at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh the evening before the US$20 million Saudi Cup.
“Being at Churchill Downs that day was crazy to experience. From a jockey’s point of view you get goosebumps, seriously, it’s a gamechanger being there, it changes things for you.”
It’s not like Fresu, 31, hasn’t had big race successes: there’s last April’s win on Stronghold in the G1 Santa Anita Derby that took him to Kentucky in the first place for a seventh of 20 finish behind Mystik Dan; and, of course, his March 2021 win at Meydan on the Dubai World Cup card when he made all on the ill-fated Zenden at big odds in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen. But the Kentucky Derby is something else.
“I rode in the Dubai World Cup two and a half times, because one time the horse went down in the gate, so I’ve been there three times, but it was different, the Kentucky Derby, there’s a different feeling and a different vibe to any other race. It’s kind of crazy, it’s hard to describe this feeling,” Fresu says.
“It’s the biggest race in America and you’ve never seen so many people at the racecourse, it’s unreal. And when you get there, you start going down to the parade ring, you see all those people and then you get on your horse; you’re walking out, and they start playing the song, My Old Kentucky Home. And everybody sings it. You hear that and you hear the crowd just singing that song while you’re walking out the tunnel, getting onto the track.”
An official crowd figure of 156,703 was recorded at Churchill Downs on that first Saturday in May last year. That’s a huge leap from even the 32,089 Santa Anita logged for the 2024 Santa Anita Derby day.
“The Kentucky Derby crowd is something else,” Fresu continues. “When you are on your horse, you’re not part of the crowd, but you’re there walking out for your biggest race and you get this vibe, it gives you a lot of adrenaline. Then you’re warming up the horse going on the back side and still you see people there cheering.
“The most amazing part was I was drawn 18, on the outside, then two more horses after me, and there are people there right next to you because the gate is across the whole track. Then when the last horse is walking in you hear kind of a silence, a hush. You don’t hear any people, and then the gates open and you hear the roar. Then you’re just riding. It’s crazy, it’s special.”
Fresu’s passion for race-riding, and for horses, traces back to his days growing up in Sardinia where his father Stefano was a jockey, just like grandfather Antonio before him, and great-grandfather Stefano before him.
But despite being next in line to those three generations of jockeys (including an uncle), and spending most of his spare childhood hours around horses, Fresu was not necessarily destined to follow that same vocation, not if his father had his way.
“My father didn’t want me to be a jockey,” Fresu says. “I started late, my first ride I was almost 20 years old because my dad wanted another life for me. My grandfather and my uncle, they didn’t mind, but my father, he said ‘No,’ he said ‘Keep studying and if you want to work with horses be a vet, working with horses is not an easy life’.
“He knew it was tough, he knew the dangers and he always had trouble with his weight. He was stockier than me, he said ‘You’re going to be heavy, you’ll struggle all your life, don’t get into that.’ He didn’t ever put me on a horse: I was always there at the stables, because I loved the horses, and when I was 11 or 12, I started mucking out; every now and then they would put me on a horse just to walk or sometimes just to trot a little bit, but I didn’t ride much, I never cantered.”
But Fresu’s dream was not to be denied. At 18, he went to the racing school at Pisa and his father eventually came around.
“I followed my own path and learned how to ride and when I got my licence my dad changed, he started supporting me. He understood that was what I wanted to do so then he started teaching me,” he says.
He was apprenticed to “The Big Boss” Alduino Botti, the former jockey-turned multiple champion trainer and part of the renowned Botti racing dynasty.
“He’s tough … he’s really tough,” Fresu says of Botti with a knowing half-smile. “He was never happy, he was old school, but in a good way, he wakes you up. He taught me a lot; he taught me how to be serious doing this job. When I started, I was almost 20 years old and he said to me, ‘You need to think like you are 30, you need to be mature.’
“He taught me to keep focus, in everything I do. You win by 10 lengths, he’s not happy because you messed up the handicap; you win by a nose, he’s not happy because you almost lost. He was never saying well done, just all the time saying work harder, harder, harder. He was that kind of guy, but it was a good school.
“If he likes you and thinks you’re good, he’s tough but if he doesn’t, if he think’s you’re not for the job or you’re not really interested, he doesn’t care, he doesn’t tell you anything, he’s not going to waste his time with you. It was really good for me, the best school I could ever have had.”
That grounding prepared Fresu for what is a still-developing career. After cutting his teeth in Italy, he tried his hand in Britain, then found his way to winters in the middle east and was runner-up to Tadhg O’Shea in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) champion jockey standings two years running until he left for California.
It was trainer Doug O’Neill who encouraged him to relocate to the west coast and he and fellow trainers Mark Glatt and Phil D’Amato have provided the bedrock to Fresu’s strong first two years Stateside that have yielded 20 Graded stakes wins and 260 wins total, so far. His tally for 2024 ranked him 18th in the nation by earnings and 22nd by wins.
But for all last year was a huge success, it was that Churchill Downs experience plus two that got away that have stoked his hunger.
“You always set different goals, every year, but since I went to California, step by step you start achieving things and then you start shifting your mind, you get more ambitious so you start thinking of achieving something more,” he says.
“I’m always looking forward to the next Del Mar in the summer, it’s probably the best part of the year, and then we’re going to have the Breeders’ Cup again there. I went really close last year in a couple of Breeders’ Cup races, second (by a neck) on Iron Man Cal in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and second on Motorious (by only a head) in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, so this year my goal is to be a step forward of that.”
Firstly, though, he needs to find the Kentucky Derby mount he so desires.
“I still haven’t found a horse for the Kentucky Derby this year,” he says. “I’m looking for something in the Santa Anita Derby, but it’s not easy. We need to see what’s happening when it gets closer.”
There’s the added complication of the Dubai World Cup meeting being on the same day as the Santa Anita Derby this year. A decision will have to be made as to where he will be on April 5, but it’s not a bad choice to have: Meydan or Santa Anita?
“It will be difficult to make that decision, but I’ll have to see where I have the best chances,” he adds. “I’m focused, all I want is to just win.” ∎
