Jockey Jaime Rodriguez returning to Mid-Atlantic
Won five straight meets at Delaware, Laurel
Frank Vespe
August 18, 2026
Jockey Jaime Rodriguez, who led Delaware Park riders in wins for five consecutive seasons 2021-2025, is headed home.
Rodriguez, whose wife and children live in Middletown, DE, is named on four horses on Thursday’s Delaware card, though two are in the same race. He will be represented by agent John Weilbacher, who also had his book in his previous mid-Atlantic sojourn.
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“Everybody seems to be excited he’s coming back to Delaware and Laurel,” Weilbacher said Monday.
“I can’t wait to be back, but I think John is more excited than me,” Rodriguez joked.
With good reason. In addition to his dominance at Delaware, Rodriguez won five consecutive meets at Laurel Park, stretching from May 31, 2024 through June 29, 2025. But during the Laurel fall meet in 2025, Rodriguez moved his tack to New York.
While Rodriguez has scuffled during the current Saratoga meet, with just nine wins in 147 starts, he has done well in other New York meets. In three Aqueduct meets, he finished second, third, and fifth in wins, and in the spring “Belmont at the Big A” meet, he was eighth.
In all, Rodriguez has 79 wins this year from 671 starters with purse earnings of nearly $6.5 million.
[Other riders told me] “nobody’s doing what you’re doing,” Rodriguez said. “You came from the Mid-Atlantic to New York, you’re doing good, and now you’re going back.”
That, Rodriguez said, is because he wanted to be back with his family. His children are 12, seven, and three years old.
“I know I’m doing good [in New York], but I did it more for family because I’m more like a family guy,” Rodriguez said. “You can ride anywhere, but family, you only have one, and I want to spend time with the kids. When they grow, they grow fast.”
Weilbacher expects that Rodriguez’s time in New York may help him pick up some mounts shipping in to Mid-Atlantic tracks. And while he acknowledges that getting Rodriguez back to top dog status won’t happen overnight, he expects it will happen.
“Everybody’s got riders they’re comfortable with,” the agent said. “But I also think it’s still Jaime. I think once they see him and he’s here and he’s on the overnight and he’s racing and he’s definitely staying and all that, the mounts will come.”
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