Juan Arriagada

Owner: Juan Arriagada | Born: January 16, 1978 | Birthplace: Lima, Peru | Residence: Oldsmar, FL

First Win: Jour de Chance, Charles Town, 2005 | Tampa Trainer: Juan Arriagada

Arriagada remained in the running for a Leading Owner title last season until the final days of the meet, settling for a second-place finish with 21 winners, three behind Endsley Oaks Farm. His 27.8-percent win rate (21-for-76) was tops among all owners with 25 or more starts. Also a trainer, Arriagada was fourth last season with 23 victories, capturing 25.3 percent of his starts as a conditioner. Arriagada finished fifth in the previous season’s Owner standings with 10 winners, and his runners posted a sterling 62-percent in-the-money figure. After selling his top horse in 2021, 4-year-old filly Estilo Talentoso, to a partnership, he continued to train the Grade III stakes winner until her retirement. Both Arriagada’s father and grandfather were trainers, paving the road for Juan to make a name for himself in the sport. In Peru, his late father Raul trained Al Khali, a ridgling who upon coming to the United States won two graded stakes and achieved millionaire status. Arriagada hoped to be a jockey when he was a boy (he rode two years in Peru and two in Chile before he was 18), but when he grew too big, he turned his sights to training. His son Nicolas, who competed as a jockey and now works for his father, earned the first victory of his career in 2021 at Tampa Bay Downs at age 21 aboard Native Hawk, a 9-year-old gelding owned and trained by the elder Arriagada. After coming to the United States in 2004, Arriagada worked as a hotwalker for trainer Joe Orseno at Delaware Park and galloped horses at Sharp Farm before going to work for trainer George “Rusty” Arnold at Churchill Downs. Continuing his on-track education, Arriagada worked for trainers Anthony Dutrow and Anthony Pecoraro before buying his first horse. At the 2017 Ocala Breeders’ Sales April auction, Arriagada purchased a 2-year-old filly, Estilo Femenino, for $9,500. She won two of her first three starts before finishing second as a 3-yearold to multiple graded-stakes winning mare Curlin’s Approval in the Sugarloaf Key Handicap at Gulfstream. Soon afterward, Arriagada reached an agreement to sell Estilo Femenino privately for $350,000.