Kentucky Derby winning jockey Junior Alvarado has connection to Long Island ice cream shop

The thick mud at Churchill Downs doused the jockeys and horses by the end of Saturday’s 151st Kentucky Derby.

But as Junior Alvarado, a 38-year-old Venezuelan who lives in Garden City, emerged victorious atop 7-1 underdog Sovereignty, three words could clearly be read on his left leg – even with his white pants dirtied – and his sweater: Hildebrandt’s Ice Cream.

Gretchen Priddy and her eight friends, visiting New York for a birthday party, took notice. On Sunday, they made a worthwhile trip to Hildebrandt's in Williston Park.

“So we watched the Derby yesterday, and we're all originally from Kentucky, so we were super excited celebrating our friend's birthday,” said Priddy, 30, who lives in Atlanta. “And when I saw Sovereignty won, we noticed that there was a brand on his collar, and one of our friends is really into horse racing. Her dad grew up as a trainer with a jockey, and he was like, ‘Oh yeah, the jockeys have sponsors now.’

“So I was like, ‘Well, let's look at the sponsor. This is such an interesting name.’ And we Googled it, and we were at a [beach] house in Long Island. And I was like, ‘Oh my God, this place is 50 minutes from us,’" Priddy said. "We called up. We were like, ‘We heard you're sponsoring the jockey who won the Derby.’ And they're like, ‘Yeah, we're giving free ice cream if you come in and get a meal, you get a free ice cream with it.’ ”

Randy Sarf, one of the owners of Hildebrandt’s, sponsored Sovereignty jockey Alvarado and was offering free ice cream all weekend to anyone who came in to talk about the horses. The victory has only elevated exposure for the restaurant, but it is about more than that for Sarf.

“The phones are blowing up,” said Sarf, 55, who grew up in Great Neck and lives in Mineola. “The Instagram is blowing up. The emails are blowing up. Everything is blowing up. It's such a feel-good thing. It's not really just thinking about the financial aspect of blowing something up like this. You just want everybody to let it all sink in and enjoy it.”

Alfredo Gomez, 57, of Uniondale, has worked at Hildebrandt’s for 37 years. He said he has never seen a scene like this weekend at the restaurant.

Sarf has deep roots in horse racing, first going to the track when he was 10 years old. He bought his first horse when he was 18 and owned horses from 1988 to 2004. Sarf and his family got back into it three years ago, and he has 12 horses now.

Sarf and Alvarado have been longtime Instagram friends, but their relationship took off last September. Alvarado was riding a horse named War Like Goddess and lost by a hair to one of Sarf’s horses, who had the same father. A week later, another one of Sarf’s horses beat War Like Goddess.

The pair stayed in touch, including Alvarado coming to Hildebrandt’s and appearing on Sarf’s podcast, “The Horse Whisperer Podcast.” Sarf learned that Alvarado did not have a sponsor for the Derby, and he came up with a marketing plan and an “offer he couldn’t refuse.”

Saturday was the first time Sarf, who has owned Hildebrandt’s since 2022, sponsored any jockey or athlete.

“Hopefully one day, I can sponsor every jockey with the ice cream the same way Nike sponsored people,” said Sarf, who alluded to the 2023 movie “Air” that highlighted Nike’s pursuit of Michael Jordan. “The ice cream doesn't taste the same without the jockey eating it. No different than how the shoe was with Nike.”

Sarf plans to develop an ice cream with a flavor of Alvarado’s choice. Sarf will attend both the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore on May 17 and the Belmont Stakes in Saratoga on June 7 as Alvarado chases the Triple Crown.

“If I could have a ticker-tape parade down Hillside Avenue or Hempstead Turnpike, I would do it tomorrow,” Sarf said. “It's a really feel-good story for Long Island, for Belmont. It's real good. We need this guy to win the Triple Crown. We need it.”

By Ben Dickson

benjamin.dickson@newsday.com@bendickson__

Ben Dickson joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.