HALLANDALE BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - The $3 million Pegasus is one the richest horse races in all of North America. In Saturday’s race in Gulfstream Park, there was one jockey who splits his time racing on two different tracks.
There’s no jockey in the world like Richard Kingscote.
When he isn’t racing on four legs, he’s racing on two wheels.
“If you’re not concentrating on it, then you’re going to have problems,” Kingscote said. “So it’s sort of, it’s all in that moment really.”
The 35-year-old races horses down the stretch at 40 mph.
Off the turf track, he’s on another track racing motorcycles that hit speeds of upwards 155 mph.
“It’s different because obviously I have more experience on the horses, and there I’m probably more comfortable doing that,” Kingscote said. “The bike takes me out of my comfort zone a bit, but it’s good for me to take my head in the right place for riding horses,” Kingscote said.
Kingscote is closing in on 1,400 career wins as one of the top jockeys in the U.K.
He picked up the sport as a teenager.
“I wasn’t bred into racing at all, so I had no family involved,” he said. “My mom got a pony, so just started riding ponies down the beach every day, every school holiday, every weekend, every minute I could I’d be on the back of a horse, so that got me going and started racing when I was 16. It’s been upwards since then.”
At the same time, Kingscote started racing motorcycles.
It’s the need for speed that continues to attract him to both sports.
Fellow jockeys at the track are asking why.
“The thing I think is that it’s an unnecessary risk, but it’s something I enjoy and it takes me away from the race, and it gets my head in a good spot, so you might as well do what you enjoy,” Kingscote said.
He has his eye on competing and winning major races in both sports.
“Yeah absolutely, if I can get a ride in it, that would be cracking, but who knows what will come,” Kingscote said.
The final jockey draw for the Pegasus World Cup and the Pegasus stakes races will be finalized Monday.
Cyberknife comes in as the early 5-2 favorite.
While Kingscote isn’t racing horses or motorcycles, he works as a plumber.
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