New Orleans, La (Oct. 18, 2023) – Jockey Corey Lanerie became the 38th North American rider to win 5,000 races on Wednesday, piloting Denny East, Jerry White, Mark Young, and Michael Post’s I Feel the Need to victory for trainer Chris Hartman in Race 3 at Keeneland.

Hailing from Crankton, Louisiana, Lanerie returned to the jockey colony at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots last season after two years away. While knocking on the door of his 5,000th career win, Lanerie made the most of his homecoming, offering difference-making rides week-in and week-out. His impressive resurgence garnered him 50 wins, a 21% strike rate, and he finished third in the overall standings.

Lanerie’s first career win came on April 19, 1991 at Evangeline Downs aboard High Hopes Banquet for trainer C. D. Delahoussaye.  He moved his tack to Fair Grounds that same year and his first local win came December 1, 1991 aboard Crazy in Love for trainer Guilliam Dronet, who also saddled Lanerie’s first stakes winner later that meet in the Black Gold Stakes. This year, Fair Grounds will be celebrating the 100-year-anniversary of Black Gold’s Louisiana and Kentucky derby victories. Lanerie won his 3,000th career winner at Fair Grounds in 2011.

The son of former jockey-turned-trainer Gerald Lanerie has won 1100 races at FG, which is the fourth-most of any jockey since 1990.

Having won many of the sport’s top races, Lanerie scored his first graded stakes victory in the Razorback Handicap at Oaklawn Park in 1999. He has seven grade one victories to his name, including three at Keeneland, taking the Ashland (G1) with Hooh Why in 2009, Weep No More in 2016, and  Sailor’s Valentine in 2017. In Kentucky Derby 143 he gave Lookin at Lee a brilliant ride up the rail to finish second, his best finish of his six career Derby mounts. The year prior in 2016 he piloted Cherry Wine to a second place finish in the Preakness (G1).

Over his 33-year career, Lanerie has won 19 riding titles at Churchill Downs, second only to Pat Day. He has also been named the leading rider at Ellis Park, Lone Star Park, Sam Houston Race Park and Retama Park. In 2014, Lanerie won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, presented annually to a jockey riding in North America who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct on and off the racetrack.

Lanerie has won over two dozen of the 65 stakes Fair Grounds currently offers. He’s bagged multiple wins in the Thanksgiving Classic, the Mineshaft (G3), Rachel Alexandra (G2), and he has eleven wins on Louisiana Champions Day, including the 2011 Classic where he piloted the celebrated Louisiana-bred, Star Guitar. In 2011 Lanerie won the Lecomte (G3) aboard Mo Tom for trainer Tom Amoss.

Upon winning his 5,000th race, Lanerie has amassed $159,799,578 in career earnings from 34,597 mounts. The 48-year-old will return to Fair Grounds’ jockey colony for the 2023-2024 racing season and again be represented by agent Anthony Martin.