HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Cristian Torres won arguably the two most important races of his career the afternoon of Feb. 6 at Oaklawn Park.
He captured the Grade 3, $1 million Southwest Stakes aboard Silent Tactic for John Oxley and the $300,000 Martha Washington with Search Party for Tracy Farmer.
Fast forward to this weekend, and the 3-year-olds trained by Hall of Fame horseman Mark Casse will be Torres’s first mounts in the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks.
It’s a significant achievement for Torres, a 28-year-old native of Puerto Rico who began riding in 2019.
“We’ve been knocking on the door for two years, winning a lot of prep races, Derby prep races,” Torres said. “To finally have it happen this year, it means a lot.”
In 2023, Torres won the Street Sense with Liberal Arts and the Gun Runner with Track Phantom. The following year, he won the Rebel with Timberlake and the Smarty Jones with Catching Freedom.
And last season, he seemed closer than ever when he was second in the Southwest and third in the Rebel with Sandman. But from there, the seasoned Jose Ortiz gained the mount on the horse who went on to win the Arkansas Derby and run seventh in the Kentucky Derby.
“It’s part of the business,” Torres said. “I just looked at it that it wasn’t my time. It wasn’t my time – and everything happens with a purpose. If God didn’t let me be in it last year, I knew he had something better for me, and look at this year, I’m riding both races.”
Silent Tactic emerged as the top 3-year-old based at Oaklawn this meet. Torres has partnered with the highly consistent closer all season, with the pair finishing second in the Smarty Jones, winning the Southwest, running second by a nose in the Rebel, and then playing runner-up in the Arkansas Derby.
“Cristian obviously knows him well, and you know, right from the beginning, they just kind of got along,” Casse said. “Cristian’s been very important in his development. He comes and he gets on him. He does a lot. I’m excited to have Cristian riding his first Derby.”
Torres flew into Louisville, Ky., last week to work Silent Tactic at Churchill Downs. The horse went a half-mile by himself in 48 seconds on Thursday.
“Everything went perfect,” Torres said. “Just maintenance. He ran in the four prep races at Oaklawn, so he didn’t need much. He’s pretty fit.”
Silent Tactic began his career at Woodbine, where he won his debut at 1 1/16 miles on the synthetic track last October and ran second in the Grade 3 Grey at the same distance in November. Torres first teamed with him at Oaklawn.
“He was a young horse when he came from Canada, changed surfaces and all that,” Torres said. “I’ve seen him mature race by race. Today, when I got on him at Churchill, it was a completely different track he’d never been to, and I felt a much more mature horse. Very mature. Everything he’s done has been great, and he’s improving.
“He’s learning what he has to do and when he has to do it, and I like that. He doesn’t overdo it. He’s the type of horse that he’ll just do whatever you ask him to do and then that’s it. He’ll save his energy for the race. So I love that.”
Aside from the mental composure, Torres also has seen physical development in Silent Tactic over the winter and spring.
“He has grown,” he said. “He’s a lot taller now and wider, and he feels stronger. I’m very happy with the way he has developed. He has gained more body and more muscle.”
Torres feels the 1 1/4-mile trip of the Kentucky Derby will suit Silent Tactic, who is by Suburban winner Tacitus.
“I don’t think it will be any problem,” he said. “He has a lot of attributes. He doesn’t overdo it. He saves his energy pretty well, so I really like that going into a mile-and-a-quarter race, because he’s not overdoing it. He will just run all day long. Even the Arkansas Derby, he made the lead at the top of the stretch, pretty early, and he just kept going. And if you watched the gallop-out, he just kept going all the way around.”
Oxley purchased Silent Tactic for $500,000 as a 2-year-old in training at an Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. sale in 2025. One selling point was pedigree. Oxley noted Tacitus is by Tapit and out of champion Close Hatches. It was 25 years ago that Oxley won the Kentucky Derby with Monarchos.
Torres closed his Oaklawn meet Sunday to set up shop at his annual base of Churchill. He was third in the Oaklawn standings through Sunday with 63 wins and second in mount earnings with $5.6 million. Torres won seven stakes this season at Oaklawn, with five of those wins coming for Casse.
Those stakes winners include Nerazurri, who Torres teams with in the Grade 1, $1 million La Troienne, and French Friction, who he has the mount on in the Grade 2, $700,000 Eight Belles. The races are on the undercard of the Kentucky Oaks, a race in which Torres and Search Party will start from post 3.
Torres and Silent Tactic, a millionaire who has never run worse than second in his six starts, will break from post 13 on Saturday.
It will be the most important moment to date in the career of Torres, who has won 888 races from 6,279 mounts through Saturday, for mount earnings of $54 million. His first win came at Gulfstream Park. His most significant one could come Saturday at Churchill.
“I’ve dreamed of this my whole life, since I started riding,” he said. “There’s nothing like it, to be in the Derby, and I wanted to experience that. I’m just very grateful to Mark Casse for believing in me, and Mr. Oxley, too. The whole team, they’ve done a great job with the horse – and the filly, too. I can’t wait for the first Saturday in May.”
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