(Jockey Gerardo Corrales / Photo Courtesy of Twitter)

Albin Jimenez has a firm hand on the Turfway Park riding title. His grip is solid on the reins. He sits at the top. Again. And, he doesn’t appear to be in any danger of losing the lead.

Not for now.

Maybe not until the current meet ends in March.

Chilly temps these days in Northern Kentucky. But the jockey is even more calm, cool and collected.

But don’t mistake. There may be a storm looming. And, it may be coming soon.

This December, trainer Wesley Ward showed up at Turfway Park hell bent on gaining another Trainer’s title. And, he showed up with a rider that he would give first call to nearly every one of his top horses — Gerardo Corrales.

It didn’t take long for people to notice two things.

Ward was on to something good.

And, Corrales was soon to be on some more horses. Some good horses, too.

In 2019, Corrales had his best year since getting he got the chance to ride in the United States — which started back in 2015. He only got 105 mounts that first year, and managed just 9 winners for the entire campaign. Last year, though, Corralles got 726 mounts. He had 192 winners, 110 runner-ups and 97 thirds. His horses won .26% of the time, and hit the board on .55% of the occasions.

While riding at Mahoning Valley Race Course in Ohio, he got the chance to ride Leona’s Reward for trainer Timothy Hamm. And, he got the chance to win the Bobbie Bricker Memorial Stakes there by a whopping 71/4 lengths.

He got his first riding title of his career last year, too, winning the championship at Jack Thistledown Racino that ended in October last year.

Not bad. Especially for a guy that hasn’t gotten a tremendous amount of opportunities.

But those rides and opportunities are starting to come now.

At Turfway Park.

After Saturday’s races were completed, Corrales was just 5 wins behind the perennial leader, Jimenez. The leader had a record of 14-7-6 in 63 mounts to hold the lead. Corrales, on the other hand, has a 9-9-5 mark in just 37 rides.

Stay tuned.

This thing could be interesting before the winter is over. There could be a storm brewing.

Here’s a look at the Top 25 riders so far this meet:

1 Albin Jimenez 63 14 7 6 $221,428 22% 27 43%
2 Gerardo Corrales 37 9 9 5 $166,350 24% 23 62%
3 Rodney A. Prescott 50 5 7 6 $122,756 10% 18 36%
4 Sonny Leon 47 6 10 2 $113,003 13% 18 38%
5 Joseph D. Ramos 40 6 3 6 $109,686 15% 15 38%
6 John McKee 55 6 3 13 $92,726 11% 22 40%
7 Alan Garcia 34 7 3 2 $83,267 21% 12 35%
8 Malcolm Franklin 26 2 5 2 $76,320 8% 9 35%
9 Leandro D. Goncalves 41 5 1 2 $68,043 12% 8 20%
10 Alex Achard 23 2 2 2 $55,518 9% 6 26%
11 Rogelio Miranda 43 2 3 6 $53,538 5% 11 26%
12 Luan Machado 33 1 1 7 $39,790 3% 9 27%
13 Abel Lezcano 18 2 3 1 $30,488 11% 6 33%
14 Julio A. Garcia 1 1 0 0 $27,900 100% 1 100%
15 Azael De Leon 17 2 5 1 $27,625 12% 8 47%
16 Javier Padron-Barcenas 26 2 0 4 $26,855 8% 6 23%
17 Eddie Zuniga 10 3 0 1 $26,603 30% 4 40%
18 Jose Riquelme 28 2 3 2 $24,070 7% 7 25%
19 Angel Serpa 27 1 0 1 $21,015 4% 2 7%
20 Gabriel Lagunes 9 1 1 2 $17,083 11% 4 44%

(Stats compiled by Equibase)