Hill enjoying his first full Keeneland meet

Jockey Channing Hill is riding his first full meet at

Keeneland this fall, and his decision to come to Central Kentucky already has

paid dividends with a victory aboard Poker Player in last Sunday's Grade 3 Bourbon.

"This was something I had always wanted to do," said Hill,

a 26-year-old native of Grand Island, Nebraska. "I had shipped in a few times and one

spring (2009) I rode a horse for Roger Attfield (Society's Chairman) that beat

Parading in an allowance race that should have been a Grade 2."

Hill rode his first race at Columbus, Nebraska, when he was 16

and then went to Prairie Meadows in 2004.

"In January 2005 after I graduated from high school, I went

to New York," Hill said of a circuit that for the most part has been his home

base since. "Once you are in New York, you never really get to leave, but I went

to Chicago last year and that opened up more opportunities."

Hill won 18 races last summer at Arlington Park and this

year won 47 to finish sixth in the rider standings. Many of the horses he won on

were trained by Wayne Catalano, who also trains Poker Player.

"Wayne asked me to go down to Kentucky Downs and he was

just on fire down there," Hill said of Catalano, who followed his leading

trainer title at Arlington Park with the crown at Kentucky Downs. "People told

me that I sure must like riding at Kentucky Downs, and I told them that it was

the horses that I liked being on. You get a lot of notice with four-win days."

After the Keeneland meet, Hill plans to return to New York

for the winter but not before a quick trip to California and this year's

Breeders' Cup World Championships at Santa Anita with Poker Player.

"I never have ridden in the Breeders' Cup," Hill remarked. "I

spent three months at Santa Anita early in my career and made some great

contacts. I met (trainer) Patrick Biancone and a few years later when I rode at

Monmouth he had some real nice horses there that I got on."

Hill has one other big event coming up thanks to another

connection he made in Chicago. He is engaged to Catalano's daughter, Shelbi,

with a wedding expected in June or July.

"I met Shelbi last year at Arlington Park and she really

turned my life around," Hill said.

So who is most responsible for making inroads into the

Catalano barn, the rider or the daughter?

"Shelbi has given me a big leg up," Hill said with a laugh.

"I feel like I should give her 25 percent. She's the best agent I've ever had."

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