Apprentice jockey Cory Orm, 21, scored his first career win Dec. 9, bringing home 66-1 shot Lexi's Ready in the first race at Turfway Park (VIDEO).
Orm, a Louisville native, is a 2009 graduate of the North America Racing Academy (NARA) in Lexington but was well schooled in racing long before entering the jockey academy. His grandfather Jerry Orm and father, Mike Orm, both rode races before turning to training. His uncle Scott Orm also is a jockey.
“I’ve never wanted to do anything but be a jockey,” Orm said. “I expect I’ll always be in the racing business.”
At age 13, Orm started galloping horses for his father at the family’s Orm Stables in Taylorsville, Ky. As soon as he earned his driver’s license at 16, he exercised horses at area training centers, first for trainer Richard Kornhorst at HighPointe in LaGrange, Ky. He entered NARA after graduating from high school and finished his education with a four-month internship with trainer Steve Asmussen in New Orleans.
Orm continued to work for Asmussen in Kentucky for another four months before taking out his jockey’s license and riding his first race in late October.
“Learning at the jockey school gave me confidence,” said Orm, crediting NARA founder Chris McCarron, a Hall of Fame rider, with his development. “Chris teaches you how it is. I’d been riding a while and thought I knew it, but he taught me the business.”
To get his initial win, Orm settled Lexi’s Ready in fifth off the pace, moved up to get the lead with a furlong to go, and came home an easy 2 1/2-length winner. The race, a $7,500 maiden claiming event for 2-year-old fillies, covered six furlongs.
Lexi’s Ready is trained by Wilson Vittur for Joseph Short and Taylor Mattingly. The filly was making her seventh start and rewarded bettors with $134 for the win.