Samuel Marin Closes In On Tampa Bay Downs Single-Meet Win Record

Samuel Marin took 11 wins across three days last weekend at Tampa Bay Downs, and Antonio Gallardo's 11-year-old meet record of 147 victories is running out of runway.

Just past the halfway point of the Tampa Bay meet, the 24-year-old from Trujillo, Venezuela is on pace to eclipse the track's single-season victory record of 147 set by Gallardo. The Daily Racing Form placed Marin approximately 36 wins shy of that mark as of March 23, with the Paulick Report putting the number at 37. Either way, the math is working in his favor.

Marin rode five winners Friday for the second time this season, then followed up Saturday with three winners and two seconds from five mounts, capping the card with a victory aboard My Boy Prince in the $100,000 Turf Dash Stakes. Breaking from post two in a field of 12 as the 9-5 second choice, My Boy Prince raced inside in mid-pack saving ground before launching his rally from the fence, getting his head down at the wire to win by a neck in :55.44 for five furlongs over race favorite Rezasrolex. Sunday brought three more wins, including the fourth race for trainer Victor Carrasco Jr., the fifth for Tom Proctor, and the eighth for Hall of Famer "Shug" McGaughey III.

With 81 winners through Sunday's action, Marin is on pace to ride 153 winners assuming he competes through the May 3 finale. He has built a 28-victory advantage over five-time Tampa Bay Downs champion Samy Camacho in the standings, and his 26.6% winning rate is the best of any jockey at the meet with at least 40 mounts.

The hot streak began building well before last weekend. Marin started a standout week on a Wednesday at his winter base with a win in the first race for trainer Teresa Pompay, added a win Thursday for trainer Miguel Clement in the 10th race, and those two wins were a prelude for Friday's five-win spree. That week's total of 13 wins included a stakes victory Saturday for trainer Mark Casse and a win percentage of 43%, earning Marin Jockey of the Week honors for February 9-15.

The meet title, meanwhile, is not the only leaderboard Marin is topping. He currently leads all North American jockeys with 80 wins, two ahead of Jose Ortiz and Yedsit Hazelwood, and six ahead of Irad Ortiz Jr. He leads the Oldsmar jockey colony with 111 victories and 23 remaining racedays.

After Tampa Bay wraps up, Marin's summer looks considerably busier than previous years. He will be based at Delaware Park this summer, part of agent Mike Moran's stated goal to make Marin the country's leading rider by victories in 2026. Marin typically spends the summer at Monmouth Park, the site of his two career graded stakes victories aboard Surface to Air, but a reduction in race dates takes him further east, with agent Mike Moran telling the Daily Racing Form that Marin will begin the spring at Monmouth when it opens May 9, then head to Delaware Park for easier access to nearby tracks such as Parx, Colonial Downs, and Laurel Park. Delaware Park's three-day weekly schedule, which expands to four days in July, also offered a scheduling edge over Monmouth's predominantly two-day card.

Before the Delaware summer begins, Marin has graded-stakes business to attend to. He is scheduled to ride at Keeneland in an allowance on April 10, then take the mount on John Terranova-trained Fast Market in the G1 Jenny Wiley on April 11.

Defending his Tampa Bay leading rider title, Marin has been riding in the United States since 2022, having begun as an apprentice in Venezuela before making the move stateside. He won his first leading rider title at Meadowlands in 2024 and claimed his first career graded stakes wins at Monmouth in 2025 aboard Surface to Air in both the Monmouth Cup (G3) and the Philip Iselin (G3). The record at Tampa Bay Downs is the next item on the list, and with six weeks left in the meet, Gallardo's 147 has rarely looked more vulnerable.