Jockeys TV show Fridays

A-a-a-n-n-d away they go, for a second season of “Jockeys” on Animal Planet every Friday night. The series that garnered a 4-star rating from The New York Post last week, features spectacular footage of Santa Anita Park and from angles and locations seldom, if ever, shown.

Production crews are granted unprecedented access to almost all areas of the iconic Santa Anita venue, including the locker room of the jockeys, where post-race frustrations and strong personalities sometimes result in verbal sparring and even punches being thrown. If you missed the premiere episode of the new season, “Life is a Gamble,” profiling volatile ride Corey Nakatani, whose grandparents were ironically housed temporarily at the Santa Anita assembly center during World War II, it will rerun at 5 p.m. PT this Friday, followed at 6 p.m. PT by the second episode, “I Want Revenge,” following three jockeys struggling for the same goals. Post critic Linda Stasi says “Episode 2 will make you cheer, scream, cry and go berserkers as though you had money on the horses and the show.” “There’s not another TV show like it (except perhaps “American Idol,” where each episode is so unbearably tense),” she says. The one-hour programs follow the jockeys to their homes and out to dinner as they struggle to reach and/or maintain the status of one of the top jockeys, a unique, difficult, and fascinating challenge with which few viewers are familiar and most will find highly entertaining.