Corey Nakatani

Corey S. Nakatani (born October 21, 1970) is a retired American Hall of Fame Thoroughbred horse racing jockey. He has won 3,909 races in his career including the Kentucky Oaks twice and the Strub Stakes four times. He has won ten races in the Breeders' Cup, including three consecutive victories in the Breeders' Cup Sprint between 1996 and 1998. A fixture on the southern California racing circuit, Nakatani won a total of ten riding titles between Santa Anita Park, Del Mar and the now-closed Hollywood Park.

Background Nakatani is married to his second wife, Lisa, and has two daughters, Lilah and Brittany, and two sons, Matthew, a sports agent who specialises in horse racing and previous Louisville Cardinals football placekicker, and Austin. Brittany, Matthew, and Austin are from a previous marriage to Michele Dollase, daughter of trainer Wallace Dollase. His late father Roy Nakatani, a Japanese American, was born in a World War II internment camp and spent time at Santa Anita Park when it was a relocation camp. Corey's mother is Marie Nakatani and he is one of ten children.

Racing career Corey was a champion high school wrestler who became intrigued by racing after visiting Santa Anita with his father after a wrestling tournament at the age of sixteen. Nakatani eventually approached horse trainer Roger Stein for work. After three days of mucking out stalls and walking horses, he decided he wanted to ride even though he had never been on a horse before. Stein then suggested that he get some experience on a working farm, so he learned the ropes on the Thoroughbred farm of Tony Matos. He then went on and broke and galloped horses for Johnny Longden and Longden's son, Eric Longden before starting his career as a jockey. He graduated from jockey school in Castaic, California, and won his first race, a dead heat, in Caliente, Mexico in 1988 aboard Blue King. He moved to Southern California in April 1989, and became the leading apprentice jockey that same year. His current residence is Southern California.

Nakatani won his 3,500th race at Aqueduct Racetrack on November 17, 2011, aboard Grand Strategy in the eighth race of the day. Nakatani never returned to the saddle and formally announced his retirement as a jockey on November 23, 2019, in a statement through his son and jockey agent Matt.