Leah Gyarmati got her start in horse racing as a hotwalker at Belmont Park for trainer H. Allen Jerkens as a way to pay for her first love — show horses.
Her temporary summer job progressed to becoming an exercise rider, then, a jockey starting in 1997.
Her riding career lasted three years, from 1997 to 1999, and she won 15 races from 222 mounts. She earned over $514,000 in purses, with her best year coming in 1998.
In 1999, she began training horses.
In 2007, she surpassed the $1 million mark in purses won and, in 2014, she eclipsed the $2 million mark. Overall, Gyarmati has amassed 249 wins in over 2,500 training starts.
She is looking to get Adventist into this year’s Kentucky Derby, but, as of now, is on the outside looking in. Other than Adventist, her notable charges have been Sweet Reason and Noble Moon.
She is a multiple graded stakes winning trainer, capturing three Grade I wins with Sweet Reason, and a Grade II win with Noble Moon. Gyarmati saddled Wonder Gal in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies race, garnering a third-place finish.
If Adventist gets in the Derby, he would be her first entry.
Adventist accumulated 32 Derby points under the scoring system, and is currently ranked 22nd. He broke his maiden in his debut in maiden special weight company at Aqueduct on Dec. 19 and his New York-based Derby prep schedule resulted in third-place finishes in the Withers Stakes, the Grade III Gotham and the Grade I Wood Memorial earlier this month.
Click HERE for current odds to win the 2016 Kentucky Derby.
Ryan Dickey is a full-time firefighter in Dearborn, MI, and a life-long horse racing fan. He is a handicapper and contributor to prominent horse racing Websites as well as a freelance sportswriter/photojournalist. He covers local high school sports and community events for multiple outlets, including bi-weekly newspapers and has over 200 works published to date.
Having lived in Las Vegas for six years and working in the sports gaming industry, Ryan knows sports handicapping from “both sides of the counter.” Feel free to contact him on Twitter (@rdickey249) for questions, comments, criticisms, or critiques.