Victor Espinoza (born May 23, 1972) is a jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing who won the Triple Crown in 2015 on American Pharoah. He began riding in his native Mexico and went on to compete at racetracks in California. He has won the Kentucky Derby three times, riding War Emblem in 2002, California Chrome in 2014, and American Pharoah in 2015. He also won the Preakness Stakes three times, in those same years and with the same horses. He was the first jockey in history to enter the Belmont Stakes with a third opportunity to win the Triple Crown; his 2015 victory made him the oldest jockey and first Hispanic jockey to win the award.
Espinoza was born on a dairy farm in Hidalgo, Mexico, the eleventh of twelve children. He and his brother Jose L. Espinoza, his senior by three years, rode horses on the farm; when he was 15 he left home and traveled to Cancún to assist his brother as a Quarter Horse trainer. He paid for jockey school by driving a bus in Mexico City at age 17. Within a few years, Espinoza was racing Thoroughbreds at Mexico City's track, Hipódromo de las Américas.