Veteran jockey Corey Lanerie joined an elite club of reinsman Oct. 18 when he notched career win 5,000 with I Feel the Need in Race 3 at Keeneland.
According to Equibase statistics, Lanerie is the 38th North American jockey known to have won 5,000 races. Among active riders, Lanerie is 12th behind leaders Perry Ouzts (7,418 wins as of Oct. 17) and Hall of Famer John Velazquez (6,543). The overall leader is Russell Baze (12,842) followed by Laffit Pincay Jr. (9,530), Bill Shoemaker (8,833), Pat Day (8,803) and Ouzts.
"It's beautiful," said Lanerie, a 48-year-old native of Cankton, La., near Lafayette. "I have been waiting a long time and it seems like I got right on it and I could never get over the hump, but today we got over the hump and hopefully we keep rolling.
"Everyone kept asking 'Is this the one? Is this the one?' and I kept saying 'I hope so.' It puts a little pressure on, but we live through pressure."
I Feel the Need, a 4-year-old daughter of Keen Ice trained by Chris Hartman, was the 2-1 betting favorite.
"I looked at replays and she seemed like she came out of the gate slow in her previous starts, so I let her find her stride," Lanerie said. "I positioned myself behind (Steel Racer) and figured I would find a seam. In the middle of the (final) turn, she came off the rail a little bit and my horse was brave enough to shoot on through."
Like scores of great Cajun riders before him, Lanerie started out as a kid riding at the storied "bush" tracks of southwest Louisiana. A third-generation horseman, his grandfather was a trainer and his father, Gerald, was a jockey and trainer. In 1991, he won his first sanctioned race at Evangeline Downs in Carencro, La., just north of Lafayette.
Lanerie has been the leading rider at Churchill Downs 19 times, second only to the legendary Pat Day, and also boasts titles at Ellis Park, Lone Star Park, Sam Houston Race Park, and Retama Park. In 2014, he won the prestigious George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, elected by his peers, honoring "riders whose careers and personal character earn esteem for the individual and the sport of Thoroughbred horse racing."
His best-known mounts over the years include Posse, Molly Morgan, Bradester, Star Guitar , Brody's Cause , Majestic Harbor, Weep No More, Hog Creek Hustle , and his most recent grade 1 winner, Bell's the One.
READ: Lanerie Pursues Elusive 'Big One' in Kentucky Derby
Lanerie credited trainers Steve Asmussen and Michael Stidham for helping him to break through with stakes-caliber horses in the early 2000's when Lanerie rode first-call for both trainers as they, too, were starting to compete regularly at the highest levels.
Lanerie lives in Louisville, Ky., with his daughter, Brittlyn, whom he had with his late wife, Shantel, who died of breast cancer in 2018.
"The first thing that crosses your mind is everybody in the past who helped you get there from when I started—the people who taught me how to ride—and all my family and friends that supported me the whole time, all the owners and trainers that stood by me, the horses that ran for me," Lanerie said. "I was just so blessed to have a career like this. People, including myself, just dream of a career like this, and I was able to fulfill it and do what I've had so much passion about since I was 3 years old. All I wanted to be was a jockey."
