Cordero rode three Kentucky Derby winners and won over 6000 races in his career.
Cordero was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico where he began racing at a young age.
In 1976, Cordero won the Belmont Stakes on Bold Forbes, and he won the Preakness Stakes twice, once in 1980 aboard Codex (his winning status was not overturned despite widely publicized accusations of illegal block-maneuvering and face-lashing of opponent-filly Genuine Risk with his whip) and the second time in 1984, aboard Gate Dancer.
[2] In an interview in December 2021, Cordero spoke about his life-long friendship with Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, who he considers his brother.
[1] In 2021, Cordero was based in New York full-time and working with Manuel Franco, a Puerto Rican jockey.