Tampa Bay Downs leading jockey Samuel Marin isn’t shy about being interviewed. But he has a natural humility that enables him to recede into the background, no matter his accomplishments.
“I’ve always been that way,” he said, seemingly unaware that statement itself might sound a bit like bragging in this modern age of the quick sound bite and “gotcha” media coverage. But Marin, the youngest of six children, is secure in how he’s been brought up and laser-focused on what he needs to succeed in his chosen profession.
“I’m super thankful my parents (Caracas, Venezuela residents Manuel Marin and Nancy Rojas) have kept me going like that because I’ve always been that way,” he said. “I like the way I am, and I’m definitely going to make sure I keep trying to go that way. I’m just myself, you know. I just want to be myself always.”
That’s fine with the majority of Tampa Bay Downs horsemen who are benefiting from Marin’s services. He is off to a quick start in defense of last season’s riding title, with seven winners in the first four days of the 2025-26 meet to earn the Martin’s Italian Jockey of the Month Award.
The 24-year-old rode 116 winners here last season.
Marin’s soft-spoken personality carries over into the jockeys’ room, as he absorbs the knowledge and approach of such Oldsmar veterans as six-time Tampa Bay Downs riding champion Daniel Centeno and Jesus Castanon, winner of the 2011 Preakness on Shackleford. Both began riding years before Marin’s parents decided to have one more child, and their achievements are currently distant stars in Marin’s gaze into his future.
“One of my goals is to learn as much from them as I can,” said Marin, whose 398 career winners is strong for someone his age and a virtual blip around his veteran mentors. “It’s a blessing to be able to compete with them and be able to learn from them. I’ll ask them something about what I’m doing, or what I see them do, and they are always there for me.”
Indeed, Marin prides himself in being a student of the sport. Two of his meet-high nine stakes victories at Monmouth Park this year came aboard 5-year-old Surface to Air in the Grade III Monmouth Cup Stakes and the Grade III Philip H. Iselin Stakes, representing the first graded-stakes victories of Marin’s career.
They came after Marin had ridden Surface to Air to a third-place finish in the Grade III Salvator Mile Stakes for trainer Panagiotis Synnefias in June after a layoff of more than five months.
“He (Synnefias) told me a few details before (the Salvator Mile) and that the horse didn’t like to be fighting (the rider),” Marin recalled. “I kind of feel like I did grab him a little too much and I realized after the race I shouldn’t have.
“I think he kind of needed that race anyway, but the next time (five weeks later in the Monmouth Cup Stakes) I did what the horse wanted and it was super easy,” Marin said. Easy enough, at least, for a half-length victory from 1-10 shot Just a Touch. Marin and Surface to Air were even more in tune in the Iselin, resulting in the best performance of the Kentucky-bred’s 22-race career.
Those graded-stakes victories elevated Marin’s career to a new level and are likely to open the door to riding more quality horses. “It feels incredible to win races like that,” he said.
Marin enjoys trying to get inside a horse and a race via studying race replays and past performances and observing riders who made many of the mistakes when they were 24 that he hopes to avoid. “I have a computer at home, and I’ll watch races at night and when I have time between races,” he said. “I try to prepare myself the best that I can and get to know them, even if I’m riding one for the first time.”
And on those occasions when winners are hard to come by – after all, even the best riders lose about four out of every five races – Marin relies on advice from his agent, former jockey Mike Moran, to keep going strong.
“When I lose a race, I just forget about it. It never happened,” Marin said. “It is already past, there is nothing I can do about it and I just have to focus on my other races to get a better result.
“When I get home, I’m going to think about it sometimes, when I feel like I could have done something different. But it’s like Mike says: ‘Just turn the page and keep working hard.’ That’s what I try to do.”
Around the oval. Jose Ferrer and Gaddiel Martinez each rode two winners on today’s card. Ferrer won the first race on Coqueta Blue, a 2-year-old filly owned by Cairoli Racing Stable and trained by Antonio Sano. Ferrer also won the eighth with El Principito, a 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Winning Stables and trained by Gerald Bennett.
That same owner-trainer combination also sent out the runner-up, Life Is Precious.
Martinez captured the second on King Reigert, a 3-year-old gelding owned by Rice Racing and trained by Kevin Rice. Martinez added the fourth aboard Cheerful Trout, a 4-year-old filly owned by Alexis Ruiz-Beltran and trained by Ralph N. Baez.
Thoroughbred racing continues Saturday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:45 p.m. The track currently races on a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday schedule, with Sundays added to the mix on Dec. 21.
Tampa Bay Downs is open every day except Christmas, Dec. 25, for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at the Downs Golf Practice Facility.
Register for “10 Days of Festivus.” The “10 Days of Festivus Challenge” Handicapping Contest begins Friday, Dec. 5, and runs through Wednesday, Dec. 24. There is no charge to enter, but players must register by 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 5 to be eligible. The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize and the runner-up earns $500.
Each day, players select one of two designated CHALLENGE RACES and their choice in the race, with results determined from a mythical $2 win-place-show wager on their pick. Players begin with a free lifeline and have an opportunity throughout the contest to purchase five more. Players lose a lifeline if their choice does not finish first, second or third, or if they fail to make a selection on a contest day.
A full set of rules is available at www.festivuschallenge.com , which is also the place to register. See how your skills stack up against many of the track’s top handicappers.
Officials and staff of Tampa Bay Downs invite Thoroughbred lovers and newcomers alike to share in the excitement of the Oldsmar oval’s meet-long centennial celebration, commemorating the track’s opening on Feb. 18, 1926.
