Cheyanna Patrick of Brooksville has achieved a great deal in her 20 short years. She’s an accomplished jockey and now a USF graduate with a degree in criminology, minoring in Spanish. Patrick is headed to the University of Kentucky College of Law in August where she will focus on equine and agricultural law.
At UK, she will be surrounded by horses and racing while she completes her law degree. “UK’s law school was my top pick because of the classes they offer,” said Cheyanna. “Plus, there are lots of good firms in that area, so I’m hoping I can continue my career in the Lexington area after graduation.”
Patrick hails from a family deeply involved in horse racing. Cheyanna spent a lot of her childhood in Pendleton, Indiana where her family raced at Hoosier Park and Indiana Grand from April through November. Her parents Cindy and Gary are both in the historical statistics for owning and training Thoroughbreds at Indiana Grand.
In 2015, Cheyanna was the recipient of the Juan Saez Leading Apprentice Jockey Award at Indiana Grand. This year she has ridden two winners in the first 13 days of racing and also hit another career high when she guided Bipartisan to victory for trainer Carl Deville at Churchill Downs Saturday, April 29. In a riding career that is only part-time, she has won 55 races since beginning her career as a jockey at the age of 16 in 2013.
She plans to continue to ride until it’s time to pack up and move to law school.
At the young age of 16 she began a jockey career and enrolled at the University of South Florida. She graduated with a 4.0 grade point average on May 11th, earning her a King O’Neal Scholar Award. Of the 5,700 in her graduating class, only 34 completed their degrees with a perfect 4.0, placing Cheyanna in an elite group for the honor.
“It was hard at times and I had a couple of classes this year that were challenging, but I was able to keep my 4.0 GPA,” said Cheyanna.
Her parents, family and friends were able to attend her graduation ceremony. “It was great to have my family there,” said Cheyanna. “They are my biggest supporters. We also had some family friends there too. It was a special day.”
Horses will always be part of Cheyanna’s life. The former National Barrel Horse Association All American Youth World Title holder still has four or five barrel horses and plans to always stay in touch with that aspect of competition.
“Even after I graduate, I will always have barrel horses and will compete,” said Cheyanna. “I will always be involved in horses in some way.”
Live Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racing continues through Saturday, Oct. 28. Racing is conducted Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 2:05 p.m. EST with Saturday racing beginning at 6:05 p.m. EST. Thursday racing will be held July 6 – Aug. 24 at 2:05 p.m. EST.