george
Active Member
Posts: 125
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Post by george on Jul 30, 2017 18:25:49 GMT -5
When he was injured in late 1998, he came back four months later riding scared, and never rode nearly as well after that compared to before the injury, not that he was "great" to start with. It reached the point where he was just average - so he left to become a big fish in the small pool of Southern California. Even so, he wasn't all that spectacular out there anyway, riding at about 14% winning rate.
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qhwizard
Active Member
aqueduct sucks, belmont sucks, saratoga sucks, and everything in MD. sucks. wespecially timonium!!
Posts: 765
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Post by qhwizard on Jul 31, 2017 1:35:44 GMT -5
ok stop the nonsense!! big fish in a little pond? we can argue current horses, tracks, trainers, or even past champion horses all we want, but the callifornia jockey colony during the 80's and 90's was second to none. definitely not the "little pond" you are trying to make it out to be. yes there were great jockeys spread out throughout the country and it can be argued who the very best was, but most sane people agree that the west coast colony was the deepest and best of anywhere. I cant believe you just said that.
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george
Active Member
Posts: 125
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Post by george on Jul 31, 2017 14:31:08 GMT -5
wiz, Smith went out to California in 2000. By that time all the good jockeys of the '80s and '90s had either retired or were at the very end of their careers. Who was left, Joe Talamo and Rafael Bejarano? Vinnie Bednar?
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qhwizard
Active Member
aqueduct sucks, belmont sucks, saratoga sucks, and everything in MD. sucks. wespecially timonium!!
Posts: 765
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Post by qhwizard on Jul 31, 2017 16:48:02 GMT -5
well you said 1998 in your post, so that's what I'm going off of. and even at the end of their careers, most of them were still top riders.
as far as the three you mentioned? get serious. bejarano was an east coast boy when he started. talamo started in Louisiana in 2006 and didn't ride here until 2007. and Bednar didn't even start riding until 2012 and rides at los Alamitos. that's really who you are going to use as a comparison for 1998?
jockey colony in 1998 at major west coast tracks.......
eddie d. didn't retire until an injury in 2003. pincay retired in 2003 McCarron retired in 2002 stevens is still riding kent d. is still riding corey nakatani is still riding Patrick Valenzuela still riding I think and definitely still in a crack house somewhere. alex solis just retired a year or two ago victor Espinoza still riding david flores just retired yesterday hell even just average journeymen like martin pedroza and others
who am I forgetting? not an easy colony to bust into. even if they were getting close to the end, those guys were still going to get the majority of the top mounts based off of reputation and history alone. definitely not a small pond.
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