ITM Telegraph — Remembering Robby Albarado, 1973–2026 | Wednesday, August 5, 2026

In The Money Telegraph

Wednesday, August 5, 2026 · By ITM Staff

Remembering Robby Albarado, 1973–2026

The racing world lost one of its most accomplished and popular riders on Tuesday. Robby Albarado, the Louisiana-born jockey who partnered some of the sport’s greatest horses across a long and decorated career, died in Saratoga Springs, New York. He was 52. His death was confirmed by trainer Kenny McPeek, for whom Albarado had been working as an exercise rider. He had undergone a procedure the previous week to place a stent for a blockage near his heart and had been discharged from the hospital, which made the loss all the more sudden and difficult to absorb.

Albarado’s résumé speaks for itself. He retired in 2021 with 5,222 victories — 26th on the all-time list, one of only about three dozen riders ever to reach 5,000 — and more than $221 million in earnings, good for 19th all-time. He won 39 Grade 1 races, took the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 2004, and entered the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame in 2005. He had started, like so many Louisiana horsemen, on the bush tracks as a boy, and rose to the very top of his profession.

He is best remembered for his partnership with Curlin — the 2007 Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer he guided to the Preakness and a signature victory in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race the Breeders’ Cup on Tuesday called “a defining moment” in its history. There was so much more: Horse of the Year Mineshaft; a second Preakness aboard the brilliant filly Swiss Skydiver, who outbattled Kentucky Derby winner Authentic in 2020; Court Vision’s Breeders’ Cup Mile; Tapitsfly. In his final chapter he had become a trusted horseman in the McPeek barn, his hands on the morning training of champions like Thorpedo Anna and Mystik Dan. “He was a very good friend and a top horseman,” McPeek said Tuesday. “This is rough.” Twice a finalist for the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame, Albarado has not yet been enshrined there — an omission many in the sport hope will one day be corrected. As McPeek put it: “There was nobody better on a horse than Robby Albarado. He needs to be in the Hall of Fame.”

We’ll remember the competitor, too. On the night of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup, PTF and JK found themselves in adjoining conversations at the bar at Jeff Ruby’s in Louisville, a few feet from Robby. Monomoy Girl had won the Distaff that afternoon; Robby had ridden her rival, Swiss Skydiver. He leaned over and asked the table who they thought should win the Eclipse Award for the season’s champion filly — hoping, you sensed, that Monomoy Girl’s big day hadn’t been quite enough to take the title from his own mare. JK didn’t miss a beat: “Well, I know who I want to say — because it’s you asking the question.” Robby got his wish, as it happened; Swiss Skydiver took the Eclipse. Even in a room full of stars, he wanted the win, and he had the charm to fish for it with a smile.

“Saying goodbye to someone who left us too soon is extremely difficult,” Churchill Downs president Mike Anderson said. That’s the feeling across the sport this week. Our thoughts are with Robby’s family, his many friends, and everyone in racing who counted him as one of their own. Rest easy, Robby.

Looking to a Huge Saturday

The racing goes on, and Saturday brings one of the best days of the summer. At Saratoga, it’s Whitney Day, with three Grade 1s on the card topped by the Whitney itself, where a marquee older-horse cast — Baeza, Sovereignty, Magnitude, and the filly Nitrogen taking on the boys — looks set to square off. Ryan Anderson and Jackson Muniz break it all down with Andy Serling on the Gallop Out, previewing the Fourstardave and the Saratoga Derby along the way.

Saturday is also the biggest day in harness racing: the $1 million Hambletonian at the Meadowlands, where Ohio’s Big Ranger drew in as the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Tim Tetrick and trainer Anette Lorentzon, with the elimination one-two of Apex and Endurance ready to make him earn it. Ray Cotolo and Mikee P go through the Hambletonian and Hambletonian Oaks draws — and the crew has a live Hambo Day round table set for Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET on the ITM Network.

Walk the Shed with Mark Casse

In the latest Walk the Shed, presented by Keeneland Sales, JK visits Hall of Famer Mark Casse off Counting Stars’ win in the Coaching Club American Oaks — and talks through one of the game’s great skills: unearthing Grade 1 winners for less than $100,000 at the Keeneland September sale. As Casse puts it, there’s gold in those hills; you just have to find it. (They spend a reasonable amount of time on Canada, too.)

More all week at inthemoneypodcast.com, with daily previews on the ITM YouTube channel and premium tips on ITM Plus.