Ronald Ardoin
Ronald D. Ardoin is a retired jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing. He is one of a number of successful Cajun jockeys who began their careers riding in bush track races in Louisiana.
In 1973, at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana, Ron Ardoin earned the first of his 5226 career wins. During his thirty-one years in racing he won twelve riding titles at Louisiana tracks, earning six at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans and another six at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City. Ardoin also won a riding title at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, Texas. At Oaklawn Park Race Track in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he scored the most significant win of his career when he rode Zarb's Magic to victory in the 1996 Arkansas Derby. That win led to his second appearance in the Kentucky Derby, in which he had finished tenth in 1985, riding Zarb's Magic to a thirteenth place result.
On August 20, 2000, Ron Ardoin became the 16th jockey in North America to win 5,000 races when he rode Heart of an Angel to victory at Louisiana Downs.
Ron Ardoin was inducted in the Fair Grounds Racing Hall of Fame in 1998 and the Lone Star Park Hall of Fame in 2007.
After an injury in March 2003 kept him out of racing, Ardoin officially retired in early 2004 having won 5226 races. A resident of Haughton, Louisiana, Ardoin currently works as a jockey's agent based at Louisiana Downs.
