Derek Sturniolo
More than 30 years with racehorses: jockey, trainer, assistant trainer, exercise rider, and now racing official.
Derek grew up in harness racing and moved over to Thoroughbreds. He rode races professionally for 25 years, ran his own stable as a licensed trainer, spent six years as an assistant in Barclay Tagg's barn, and has worked as an exercise rider since 2005. Today he's a racing official at Lone Star Park and Sam Houston in Texas. What he learned along the way was never written down. That's what Barn to Track is for.
- 30+
- years working with racehorses
- 25
- years riding races as a jockey, 1989 to 2014
- 100+
- wins as an assistant in Barclay Tagg's barn
- 2
- trips to the Kentucky Derby
His career, chapter by chapter
Laid out the way a racing program lays out a horse's past races. Some chapters overlap, the way they do on a real backstretch.
| Chapter | When | Where | What he did |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harness racing | Growing up | tracks to add | Grew up in the harness racing world before moving over to Thoroughbreds. |
| Jockey | 1989 to 2014 | Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Texas and Canada | Rode races professionally, with jockey licenses in five states. |
| Trainer | 1998 to 2005 | Licensed at Fairmount Park and Churchill Downs | Ran his own stable, sizing up each horse and building its training and exercise around what that horse needed. |
| Assistant to Barclay Tagg | 2005 to 2011 | Tagg Racing Stables | More than 100 wins, including the Wood Memorial with Nobiz Like Shobiz and with Tale of Ekati, the Holy Bull, and two Kentucky Derby starts. |
| Assistant trainer and exercise rider | 2005 to today | Several racing stables | Exercises horses as part of their daily training, reports back on each horse's condition and behavior, and has held assistant trainer licenses in six states and Canada. |
| Racing official | 2020 to today | Lone Star Park and Sam Houston, Texas | Clerk of scales: weighs every jockey before and after each race, helps fill the entries, and keeps race day running. Completed a racing steward certification course in 2022. |
Where he's worked
Derek has worked at some of the best-known tracks in North America, and he has been licensed as a jockey, trainer or assistant trainer in nine states and in Canada.
- New York
- Belmont Park, Saratoga, Aqueduct
- Kentucky
- Churchill Downs, Keeneland
- Florida
- Gulfstream Park, Tampa Bay Downs, Palm Meadows
- Texas
- Lone Star Park, Sam Houston
- New Jersey
- Monmouth Park
- Arkansas
- Oaklawn Park
- Illinois and Indiana
- Fairmount Park, Indiana Downs
- Ontario, Canada
- Woodbine
Six years in Barclay Tagg's barn
From 2005 to 2011 Derek worked as an assistant to Barclay Tagg, the trainer of 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide. In those years the barn won more than 100 races, took the Wood Memorial with both Nobiz Like Shobiz and Tale of Ekati, won the Holy Bull, and ran in the Kentucky Derby twice.
To add: Derek's own stories from the Tagg barn and the Derby trips, in his words.
Horses he remembers
Every horseman has the ones he still talks about. These are the stories we're getting on tape first.
- Nobiz Like Shobiz and Tale of Ekati, his two Wood Memorial winners
- The horses from his years riding races, from Illinois to Canada
- The most unusual horses he ever worked with
- The horses that taught him something he still uses
To add: names, years and a few lines on each as the stories are recorded.
He's seen the sport from every side
Most horsemen know racing from one seat. Derek has sat in nearly all of them: on the horse's back in a race, in the saddle every morning, in the barn as a trainer and an assistant, and now in the scale room, weighing jockeys before and after every race.
That's where his way of looking at a horse comes from. A jockey learns what a horse feels like under him. A trainer learns that no two horses need the same program. An official learns the rules and why they exist. Barn to Track puts all of it in one place.
The people who taught him
No horseman learns alone. Before Barclay Tagg's barn there were the harness horsemen he grew up around and the trainers he rode for, and a lot of what Derek does without thinking came from watching them.
To add: who they were, where Derek worked with them, and the one thing each of them taught him. We're recording these conversations now.
The archive
Old photos, win pictures and newspaper clippings from his years in racing. We're scanning them as we find them.
Why we're recording this
Barn to Track started with his daughter sitting down with a recorder. She knew her dad had more than 30 years of horse knowledge and stories, and that most of it existed nowhere except in his head.
There were two things worth saving. One is the history: his racing career, the horses, the people who taught him, the old photos and clippings. The other is the horsemanship: how he assesses a horse, how he works out what's normal for it, what he feels when he gets on one, how he looks at legs and feet, and how he thinks about feeding, conditioning, recovery and behavior.
The history becomes the stories you'll find in Barn Notes. The horsemanship becomes The Old-School Horseman, one module at a time.
What keeps coming up in every recording
Learn the individual horse. Know their normal. Pay attention when something changes.
Knew Derek back when?
If you rode against him, worked in a barn with him, or know him from the scale room, we'd love to hear from you.
Send us a story, a name we should know, or a scan of an old photo, win picture or clipping. You can attach a photo right on the contact form.