Jockey Chantal Sutherland rode her 1,000th winner May 6 at Santa Anita Park, where she guided Donald Valpredo's homebred Giro Candito to victory in a maiden claiming event.
The milestone victory came with a thrilling closing effort, as Giro Candito, 4-year-old son of Twirling Candy trained by Jeff Mullins, closed from eighth, 7 1/4 lengths back to catch frontrunner My Farmer at the wire in the 6 1/2-furlong sprint on a wet-fast, sealed track.
Win number 1,000 came on Sutherland's 7,982nd mount of her career, which dates back to 2000.
The Canadian-born jockey has earned more than $50.4 million in purses for her mounts and has 22 graded stakes wins on her record, most notably a trio of grade 1 scores aboard Game On Dude in 2011-12.
Although her business dropped off in recent years after a retirement and then a return to riding, the 41-year-old jockey has seven wins, six seconds, and nine thirds in 57 starts this year. Her best years were from 2009-11. In 2010 Sutherland won a career-high 159 races and earned more than $7.4 million. In 2011 she earned a career-high $8.7 million and won 152 races.
