When 6-year-old gelding Impacto won Sunday’s $54,500 eighth race at Tampa Bay Downs in a swift time of 1:09.31 for 6 furlongs, it brought Juan Arriagada’s talent as a claiming owner and trainer into sharp focus.
Impacto, a Florida-bred son of First Dude, is 3-for-4 since being claimed by Arriagada from a victory on Jan. 4 for $12,500. Arriagada expects him to be one of his top performers when he shifts his base to Presque Isle Downs in Erie, Pa., after the Oldsmar meet ends Sunday.
Other impressive claims by Arriagada here include 6-year-old gelding Growth Capital, who is 3-for-3 on the turf since being claimed for $25,000 on Jan. 25, and Old Town Road, a 6-year-old gelding who has won twice since being claimed for $6,250 on March 12 and is tied with Poker Joker for the most victories at the meet, with five apiece.
Arriagada is quick to remind a listener that the majority of his claims don’t work out that well. But the satisfaction that comes from the success stories keeps him searching for the next one.
“I claim so many horses – sometimes you do good, sometimes you do bad and sometimes it works out OK. It’s part of the game,” said Arriagada, the track’s Leading Owner for the third consecutive year. “With horses, it’s not always how much you know. I believe in hard work in this business, but I believe you need a little luck, too.”
With three racing days left in the meet, Arriagada has 30 victories as a sole ownership entity and 10 others in various partnerships. He has posted 42 victories as a trainer, second to Kathleen O’Connell, who has 52.
Arriagada will receive the track’s Leading Owner trophy Sunday in a ceremony between races.
At Tampa Bay Downs, the Arriagada barn seems to make much of its own luck. His wife Alison, who trained on her own from 2009-17 and gallops horses in the morning, is the foundation, the one who “takes care of everything. When I come to the barn in the morning, she already knows everything that is going on,” Arriagada said.
Several members of the Diaz family contribute. Victor Diaz is a groom, and his son Darwin Diaz is an exercise rider. Pedro Diaz, Victor’s brother, and Frandel Diaz (no relation) also work as grooms, along with Donald Castillo.
Nicolas Arriagada, a 26-year-old former jockey and Juan’s son, will be joining the barn at Presque Isle Downs as an exercise rider. The close-knit atmosphere seems to be sensed by the horses, as Arriagada and his crew approach their duties in a smooth, low-key manner geared toward moving each horse at a measured pace.
“When you take care of the horses, they take care of you,” said Arriagada, whose career win rate as a trainer is 20.6 percent. “When you claim a horse, the only thing you really can do is keep the horse happy. So you give them good bedding and good feed, stuff like that, and you watch them every single day.
“Every horse is different – some you have to train a little harder and others might need 2-to-3 days off after you jog them.”
Arriagada stresses the importance of having his horses compete at the right level. “I don’t say this game is hard when you have the right horses for the right races,” he said.
Alison credits her husband’s respect for the sport and the horses and his attention to detail as key factors in the stable’s ongoing success. “You have to have the passion for the sport, and he has a lot of it,” she said. “It takes a lot of hard work to do this and be successful. He has a really good team behind him, and that makes a big difference. I’m very proud of him for working so hard and doing as well as he has.”
Another turnaround story in the Arriagada barn is 5-year-old Florida-bred mare Sweet Nola, acquired in February.
The conditioner gave her almost six weeks off before entering her for a $10,000 claiming price on March 14, dropping her back in distance from a mile-and-a-sixteenth to 7 furlongs. Sweet Nola broke on top under jockey Samuel Marin and was never headed, winning easily in a time of 1:22.47 at odds of 8-1.
Sweet Nola then won her next two starts racing around two turns, causing Arriagada to smile at the unlikelihood of a horse winning three in a row after going 3-for-23 before then. Her third consecutive triumph came in an allowance/optional claiming race offering added money for Florida-breds, padding her bankroll by $33,850.
“I don’t know what I did different. I know a couple of weeks after I got her, Sweet Nola was looking muscular and shiny and happy, so I started to breeze her and she breezed real good. I thought maybe she could be OK, but I never thought she could be doing as good as she is now,” Arriagada said.
The 47-year-old Lima, Peru product enjoys the freedom that comes with owning the majority of the Thoroughbreds in his barn.
“I can’t think of any disadvantages, except maybe the bills are not easy,” he said. “I can’t complain about the horses, because every year I do better and better. I don’t like it when owners tell you what to do or where a horse should run. First of all, it’s not fair for the horse, and it’s bad for the trainer when the horse doesn’t do well after he told the owner it wasn’t ready.”
Despite the increasing challenges of operating a profitable racing stable, Arriagada is content with his year-to-year progress. Like many who compete at Tampa Bay Downs, Arriagada wishes the meet was longer, but nothing is perfect.
Close to perfect will do, for now.
“When I came here from Peru, I was a jockey. My father and my grandpa were trainers, but the only thing I knew about in my life was horses,” he said. “I had no idea about anything else. So coming here and doing well, it’s amazing for me. I have my own business and I’m doing what I love.
“I just wish I could stop the time, because being at Tampa is like being home.”
