Hollywood Park Carry Over

Lots of exciting racing yesterday around the US. Up at Golden Gate Russell Baze continues to expand upon his record wins. On Thursday he rode three winners, two seconds, and two thirds making him the rider of the day. Our long shot rider is Carlos Marquez who up at Sam Houston brought home a winner that paid 91.80. Over at Hollywood Park there is a pick six carry over of 85,277.00. My good friend Dijigi Gladney has been on a roll. Dijigi is coming back from a broken back that sidelined him for more than six years. With hard work and determination he has made it back to ride. He rode four winners over the weekend and another yesterday. Dijigi tells me that business is picking up and he is starting to ride mounts at both Hollywood Park and Los Alamitos. My hopes and prayers are with him.

Long shot of the day

Wednesday's rider of the day goes to jockey Ken Tohill who had an outstanding day of riding with four winners on the card. On Sunland Park's opening day Ken found himself having his picture taken multiple times. It's a great way to start off you meet. We have a new award for the long shot jockey of the day. Sometimes bringing in that horse that nobody gave a shot to is more rewarding than multiple wins. Jockey Jose Bello at Penn National guided Prodefrere to the wire for a whopping payout of 114.40. This definitely qualifies him as the long shot jockey of the day.

Monday's Rider Of The Day

Even on a Monday the races go on. Today's rider of the day honors go to jockey Dana Whitney from Mountaineer Park. Dana finished his day with a mere 4 winners, 1 second, and 1 show. With a total of six in the money finishes that makes Dana our Jockey of the day. Currently he sits on top of the standing at Mountaineer Park with 58 winners from 300 mounts. Although jockey Clark Jones finished the day at Portland Meadows with 3 winners, our runner up is going to be Turf Paradise's Ry Eikleberry who had a strong day of 2 winners, 4 seconds, and 2 thirds. These are the guys making it happen for us on this Blah Monday. Thank God these fellas give us something else to do on Monday besides go back to work.

Jockey of the day

There are not to many Garrett Gomez's in the horse racing industry. That is there are a number of jockeys who ride everyday and win races, yet do not achieve the success or notoriety that some do by riding at some of the more well known tracks. The truth is that these men work just as hard, but for far less reward. Starting today I am going to start taking a closer look at some of them and give them the acclaim they deserve. Today the very first rider of the day is Brian Hernandez. Brian rides at Turfway Park and scored 3 wins, 2 seconds, and 2 thirds on the day. Regardless of where you ride the wins don't come easy. Brian had an extraordinary day of racing on Sunday. So for his performance he is the rider of the day. Other jockeys who had 3 winners on the day include Manuel Cruz (Calder), Gustavo Larrosa (Fair Grounds), and Miguel Perez (Zia Park). Multiple winners make for a great day of riding so congratulations to all of these fine jockeys.

Hollywood Park

Michael Baze continues to climb the standings at Hollywood Park. Yesterdays four wins puts him one win shy of second place jockey and cousin Tyler Baze. He now sits in third trailing Garrett Gomez by four wins. The Hollywood Turf Cup was one by Sun River ridden by Garrett Gomez. The Native Diver went to Heat Seeker ridden by MC Baze. As the race for leading rider heats up look for the Baze boy's to dig in and give Garrett a run for his money. Hailing from such greats as Russell Baze, Gary Baze, Gary Stevens, to name a few, it is no wonder Tyler and Michael have made their impact in the California standings.

Delta Downs

Delta Downs hosted a nice card yesterday evening with several stakes races including the grade 1 Delta Jackpot worth 1,000,000. The Delta Jzckpot proved to be an exciting 2 year old race when favorite Z Humor ridden by Garrett Gomez dead heated with Turf War ridden by Calvin Borel. Turf war just got up in the fainal strides. A masterful ride and well timed by Calvin Borel who earlier took the Sam's Town Stakes aboard Jonesboro. Rafael Bejarano joined the festivities with his win in the 300,000 Delta Pricess.The Hollywood Turf Cup sends out a field of seven with the late scratch of Sudan.

PVal

His slow start hasn't seemed to worried owners and trainers who have him busy this weekend. On Friday Pat will be off to ride two stakes races at Delta Downs. His calls include Overextended in the Delta Jackpot Stakes and Champagne Eye's in the Delta Princess Stakes. Then on Saturday he is back to ride four races at Hollywood Park including Sudan in the Hollywood Turf Cup. To finish his weekend he will be down at Zia Park where he rides Rollicking Caller in the Zia Park Distance Championship. Now that's what I call star power. No other jockey in the country could show up after a year layoff, have a 9% win average and land these kind of calls. Lets face it the sport of kings has been good to Pat Valenzuela. I believe in second chances myself, but Pat's second chance has long been exhausted and it's time these owners and trainers open their eyes and give another hard working play by the rules jockey a chance of a lifetime.

Delta Downs

Saturday December 8th Delta Downs will be hosting a talented crop of two year olds in the 1,000,000 Grade 1 race. Big names from all over will be moving their tack for the big race. The countries top leading rider Garrett Gomez will be in town to ride Z Humor. Other top jockeys include Robby Albarado to ride Race Car Rhapsody, Rafael Bejarano to ride St. Joe, Ramon Dominguez aboard Cave's Valley, and Patrick Valenzuela has the call on Overextended. In all there will be a field of ten two year olds for the 1 1/16th race. Those of you looking for your Kentucky future book bets should keeep your eyes open.

Hollywwod Park Carryover

Tomorrows racing kicks off with a 172,765.00 pick six carryover at Hollywood Park. Three of the six races are sprint races. So in an effort to help you with your choices my friend Mark Ripple, of the book Handicapping The Wall Street Way which you can purchase through my site, has been kind enough to provide us with some great handicapping angles. Mark writes "Sprints
Most horseplayers opine that route races are more difficult to handicap than sprints. I hold a dissenting view. If the majority were correct, then we would not see such a disparity between the percentages of winning favorites for each type of race.
(this is referring back to a previous chapter of my book)
In fact, one would expect to see the percentage of winning favorites for sprint races higher than that for routes. This is not the case.
A little more than 70% of all races are sprints. A sprint race is less than one mile and not more than one turn. Most sprints are run at 6 furlongs but may be as long as seven and a half furlongs.
Conventional wisdom holds that a fast breaker, a horse that can set a rapid pace for the first quarter-mile and take the lead while saving ground on the rail, has a distinct advantage over the complementation. But what happens when the race is riddled with fast breakers as it most often is? The early leaders will thwart each other's effort and begin to back up in the final stretch. They will also create traffic problems for themselves and quickly run out of real estate to correct the mistake.
Well, what if our sprinter lags behind the rest of the pack? This presents a more severe problem in that a horse that has neither been close to the leaders nor hugged the rail will not have sufficient energy to pass the others during the final stretch run. Even if the horse is able to save ground on the rail, he will run into traffic problems too, as the leaders refuse to open a hole for him. The aforementioned "traffic problems" can be readily seen in the charts comments as "blocked," "bumped," "checked," and "forced wide."
However, the real test of a sprinter's mettle is, indeed, in the last quarter-mile stretch run. It is very important, though, that he runs effectively up until that point. He must stalk, and not lag behind, the leaders from the very start and never for a moment fall out of contention.
Look at each performance line where the horse ran six furlongs. First eliminate any horse that was ever more than four lengths off the pace at the half-mile call for any of his past three six-furlong races. This rids us of the closer. Second, eliminate any horse that was in the lead for the first quarter-mile but lost it at the half, for his last three six-furlong races. This rids us of the speedball and dueler, both of whose running styles are subject to almost the same problems as those of the closer. Last, eliminate any horse that has not finished first or second at six furlongs.
Using the horse's best finish (either first or second) at six furlongs, compute the final quarter-mile time for each of the remaining horses. If the horse was leading at the half as well, this is relatively simple. Convert the final time into seconds, subtract the half-mile time, and you have the final quarter-mile time.In races where the horse did not lead at the half, add one-fifth second for each length the horse was off the pace to the actual half-mile time and you will have that horse's half mile time. The play is on the horse with the fastest final quarter-mile time.
Delaware Park's eight race on November 1, 2004, was a fantastic example of this angle's effectiveness. Eight horses were entered in this six-furlong allowance, but only three managed to qualify as far as computing the final quarter-mile time.
..>
NAME
FIN. ¼ MI. TIME
POST TIME ODDS
11/01/04 FINISH
Gotta Rush
:26
7-2
1st
Trickle of Gold
:25 3/5
Scratched
Scratched
Carly'ssilvercharm
:26 2/5
5-2
2nd..>
For example: In Trickle of Gold's last six-furlong race she ran :22 1/5, :45 3/5, and 1:11 1/5.
As it happened, she led at the half and won the race. Converting 1:11 1/5 to :71 1/5 and subtracting :45 3/5 we have a final quarter-mile time of :25 3/5.
Trickle of Gold had set the best final quarter-mile time, but she scratched. Carly'ssilvercharm got caught up in a duel through the half (which we do not want to see) and was caught in the stretch by Gotta Rush. Missile Bay, a horse I eliminated because she had never raced at six-furlongs came late to finish third as the 9-5 favorite. My $10 exacta box returned $187 for a net profit of $167.
Remember, most of the races are won by horses that are able to stalk the leaders but do not make their big move until the final two furlongs of the race." Hope this helps!

Where are you?

Hold your horses boys. I noticed a lot of names missing from Wednesdays card. I did some checking and the Hollywood Park Stewards went on some kind of rampage after Thanksgiving. They were handing out three day suspensions like a police officer trying to make his end of the year quota. Apparently there's a lot of loose reining going on. The guys are riding around the track like it's the 101 freeway on early New Years Day. It is an interesting thing being called to the Stewards. Just imagine how you felt when the principal called you to his office, same difference. Then having them tell you all the things you did wrong with out any consideration for the fact that you are on a 1200 pound living animal. Well your favorite riders will be back up and riding soon. Don't worry they haven't moved tack yet.

Tyler Baze

Today I came across a video at www.thebloodhorse.com . It was a two part video about jockey Tyler Baze. It was hard to watch all the old video of Turf Paradise and the California tracks it showed. Seeing the locker room scenes and riders I used to ride with. Listening to him talk about the passion he has for it. I wanted to cry watching it. It's been almost six years since I sat on the back of a horse. While I am grateful and blessed to have had the opportunities of riding races, I am also saddened by the loss of it. The emptiness you feel inside when it's gone from you can't be filled by any other thing. God gave me a unique gift when I turned out to be 5'3 and a natural 110 pounds. The perfect size and weight to be a professional jockey. He also gave me the unique ability to talk to horses through a pair of reins. When Tylers' fiance talks about him sitting and watching horse races, I know exactly what she was talking about. It is heartbreaking to watch something you love so much and know that you will never be able to do it again. Tyler has been given the gift of a second chance and so far he is making the most of it. I often wonder how far I could have gone if I were led to the race track earlier in life. I had never ridden a horse before when I decided at the age of 22 that I wanted to be a jockey. So today I say good for you Tyler. You realize the gift you have been given and are making the most of it.

This sport is not for whimps!

It is often said that pound for pound jockeys are the strongest athletes there are. The sport of racing is not only about the physical strength, but about the mental toughness as well. You have to have a lot of heart to do what a jockey does day in and day out. On Friday night in a spill at Hawthorn Park 16 year old apprentice jockey Lyndie Wade was injured. He was knocked unconscious after being struck in the head at least once by trailing horses. Lyndie was rushed to the hospital where he was placed in a drug induced coma. The doctors found a small amount of bleeding on the brain. As of Saturday the bleeding appeared to have stopped and they expected him to wake up on Sunday. It does not appear as though there will be any long term affects. This is where it gets tough. A true jockey sees nothing else but getting back to work and riding horses. Having gone through a similar yet much more serious accident I am fairly confident that the first thing he will think of when he opens his eyes is when can I ride again. Wade is Currently 6th in the standings at Hawthorn. Randy Meier was also injured with a broken humerus bone. The broken arm will need to under go surgery and will sideline him for unspecified time. The meets leading rider Tim Thorton was injured in another race Friday night when he was unseated from his mount and suffered a collapsed lung. Tim will likely make his return on Wednesday or Thursday. Like I said this sport is not for wimps. Can you imagine having a collapsed lung on Friday and going back to work on Wednesday? In a jockeys mind the next race is all that matters.

Wet Weather

It was a wet and wild day yesterday for the boys in California to Arizona. To jockeys who ride on the east coast this I am sure is a normal occurrence. To jockeys on the west this is where they come to escape the nasty weather. There is an extra sense of danger riding on a wet surface. The grounds crew does a great job of maintaining the track surface and keeping it as safe as possible. It is not surprising to see Garrett Gomez having good days during this time. He has had experience riding in this kind of weather. Pat Valenzuela seems to be heating up a little. As I previously wrote he was not having the successful comeback of the old days. He is now starting to show a little of that Valenzuela magic. Rafael Bejarano continues to do well and is climbing the standings. I had an interesting call from Mr. John Pricci of www.horseracinginsider.com . Mr, Pricci has a very nice website set up with blogs about horse racing. They have asked me to write an exclusive article each week. We are still working out the details of that, but I am very interested in his ideas and what he and I can accomplish together. Take a look around his site and get familiar with it so that you can read my weekly blog. Well for now the rain has stopped and the sun is peaking through the clouds. We should have a good track today. Good luck to all of you out there with your handicapping for today.