Colonial Capsule: Malcolm Franklin returns to saddle
Jock’s most recent win was in 2023
Nick Hahn
July 7, 2026
When Malcolm Franklin walked into the jockeys’ room at Colonial Downs this summer, there were plenty of familiar faces—but plenty of unfamiliar ones, too.
After stepping away from riding, Franklin returned back home to South Carolina, trading riding boots for construction work. Franklin made two starts in 2024 and hung ‘em up. But now, at age 37, he’s back where his career began, easing his way into a sport that has changed while he was away.
“For doing it so long consistently, it’s, I was kind of getting a little sour and losing interest in it,” Franklin said of the decision to step away while appearing on Off to the Races Radio. “So I said, let me take a break and refresh myself up.”
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Back in South Carolina, Franklin started his own construction business and earned licenses in the trades. But racing never completely left him.
“I said, well, let me go back and try to ride a little bit,” he explained. “Colonial Downs is home, and only five hours from South Carolina, so that’s what made me want to get back into it.”
Home is an appropriate description. Colonial was the first racetrack Franklin ever rode, launching a career that began in 2005 and has produced 1,435 victories from 10,710 starts while earning nearly $32.2 million in purses. He earned his first career victory on the Colonial dirt, aboard 12-1 outsider The Bohemian, for trainer Hamilton Smith, on July 8, 2005.
His finest season came in 2013, when he won 175 races and amassed nearly $3.5 million in purse earnings. His biggest stakes triumph came three years earlier, when he guided Full Moon Blues to victory in the Grade 3 Tempted Stakes for trainer Tim Tullock.
After making just two starts in 2024 before retiring, Franklin has returned to Colonial this summer. Through his first six mounts, he has recorded one second-place finish and one third.
The comeback has been welcomed by horsemen and racing fans alike.
“A lot of people are shocked when they see my name on the overnight,” Franklin said. “I got a lot of calls and texting… ‘Are you really coming back?’… The feedback was good, and I appreciate it from everyone.”
Franklin isn’t expecting instant success.
“I don’t expect things to happen right away,” he said. “I’m just slowly taking my time, easing into it, and I’m gonna kind of grind it out and see what happens.”
The challenge, he says, is that Colonial isn’t quite the same place he left.
“The competition, the trainers, the riders… a lot of new names I haven’t seen before,” Franklin said. “So it was kind of like starting over again.” He credits agent Liz Morris with helping reconnect him with trainers while he waits for opportunities to develop.
Looking back, Franklin says he wouldn’t offer much advice to the teenager who left home to chase a riding career.
“I don’t have many things I’d tell him. I wouldn’t change this,” he said. “I was pretty level-headed… I would say just be yourself and be who you are.”
Now, after a brief detour away from racing, Franklin is doing exactly that—back where it all started.
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NEWS AND NOTES
Baby, it’s hot outside! Triple-digit readings, sought in Beyers speed figures but not heat indices, canceled racing on July 3 and July 4 entirely, as well as the last race on July 2. Saturday’s Miss Disco and Star de Naskra Stakes have been moved to July 11, and the track has added a July 13 card to make up for lost days.
Derby winner in the house! Kentucky Derby- and Belmont Stakes-winning trainer Cherie DeVaux captured the July 6 finale with Dr. Agne. It was her first win at Colonial Downs since 2024, when she won three races during the meet, including Deep Satin’s dead-heat for win honors in the Virginia Oaks.
A record record record, Part 1! With a time of 1:14.34 in an allowance/optional claimer, Suremeanttoobe set a new track for 6 ½ furlongs on the main track July 6. Samuel Marin was aboard the Best A Luck Farm homebred for trainer Michael Trombetta.
A record record record, Part 2! One race after Suremeanttoobe’s tour de force, Nik Juarez rode Come to Mama to a new mark of 1:07.71 for six furlongs on the outer turf erasing the previous mark of 1:08.11 set by Tyaskin in the 1998 Williamsburg Stakes with Omar Klinger aboard for trainer Donald Barr.
Just like big brother! Three-year-old filly Emerald Spun, ridden by Jareth Loveberry, broke her maiden July 2 for trainer Rodolphe Brisset. Bred in Virginia by Smitten Farm, she is by Hard Spun out of Summertime Green, by Empire Maker. Her older half-brother by Not This Time, Gigante, is a millionaire whose three Colonial Downs wins include a triumph in the 2023 Grade 2 Secretariat.
Working the early shift! Trainer Leanne Hester may have set the record for winning the earliest race at Colonial Downs July 2 when Turkish Breeze, owned by Hester, AR Racing, and George and Jeanie Needham, won the first race with Paco Lopez aboard. The race went off at 10:48 and took 1:10.01 to complete.
Nick’s Picks Clicks! Top winners are a respectable 22/65 (33.8%) for the meet including 3 of 7 top winners on July 2. The July 6 $2 Daily Double (4,5 with 2,6) paid $19.00.
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