00:00Apprentice Diego Herrera was born in Inglewood, California, but it was right here at Los Alamitos
00:08that he learned the ropes, literally, from the shed row up.
00:13I've always wanted to only ride quarter horses, and I never thought I'd be on thoroughbred
00:17ever in my life.
00:18You know, when they closed Hollywood Park, I was always coming to Los Al because my dad
00:23had a quarter horses.
00:24I was old enough, I was hanging around with a couple guys here, a couple my age, and I
00:31met Oscar Andrade Jr., and he presented me to his father and his mother.
00:36When I was old enough, they gave me an opportunity to start working here as a groom, so that's
00:41kind of how everything started here at Los Al.
00:44He spent many mornings, late nights here with us, just, you know, grooming and cleaning
00:49stalls and from the ground up.
00:51My husband was a jockey, so also helped him a lot with just, you know, fundamental skills
00:59that you need.
01:00He's been very like another father figure in my life, you know, he's very supportive
01:07and he told me to never give up on my dream, if I wanted to do this, to give it 110%, never
01:12look back.
01:13So when I was learning, I mean, he'd take out my stirrups and he's like, okay, don't
01:18use the stirrups.
01:19And I was like, why?
01:20I'm going to be riding with stirrups, and he's like, you never know that.
01:22So that last, I think it was Friday, Friday really opened my eyes and said, okay, this
01:27is why he did that.
01:28I went a mile on the turf and I had a horse named Explain This Audit, and unfortunately
01:34my stirrup broke, so I kind of, you know, my first reaction was, all right, take out
01:40the other one and keep on riding.
01:42You know, you get up in the morning and you go work horses at Santa Anita, you come back,
01:47and usually I ride the old cart, so it's kind of something that I've adjusted to it.
01:52I'd like to push it on a bunch of other young riders, aspiring riders to, you know, start
01:59from the bottom and build your way up because you learn how to appreciate everything so
02:02much more.
02:03I've had the opportunities to ride in a lot of different tracks and I come back here and
02:08I just kind of, it makes me happy and it makes me smile that I was able to overcome all those
02:13obstacles that one day I thought I'd never be able to.
02:16He still comes and, you know, helps us and he can still push a wheelbarrow and clean
02:19a stall, so it would definitely keep him grounded and reminds him where he comes from.
02:23As a kid, I didn't have a lot of friends and, you know, I'm very talkative and I talk to
02:28everybody but I didn't consider anybody as a real friend and when I met Oscar Andretti
02:33Jr., he really showed me what that horseman feel was, you know, you don't make relationships
02:39with people, you make them with horses and that's kind of where everything came from.
02:44I think one of my biggest strengths as a rider and both, I think, is getting out of the gate.
02:48I think I've been really consistent on me breaking out of the gate.
02:52For both Puerto Horsa and Toro Bell, if a horse has a bunch of speed, I can put him
02:56right there and he can be close to the pace.
02:59My goal for this year is, you know, obviously I hope I can be a nominee for the Eclipse
03:04Award and see that'd be great but even if it doesn't happen, you know, I just want to
03:09keep on being successful and, you know, I won my first grade one as a quarter horse
03:15jockey and, you know, it'd be really cool to win a grade one as a Toro Bell rider so
03:19that's something I'm working to do this year.
03:23My dad, he's a very hard-working man.
03:25He never went to school so he never had the opportunities I had here in the United States.
03:29He does landscaping and he works from Monday to Saturday and sometimes even Sunday and
03:33he doesn't, he wakes up at five in the morning, doesn't come till seven, six in the afternoon.
03:38I want to show him that I have the same strive as him to be a better person in this world
03:44and that he's very hard-working and, you know, I try to follow in his footsteps as much as I can.
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