Which young jock would you have..
 

if you had to pick one of these two upcoming jockeys to ride your horse, who would it be. Some may think it is a no brainer, but I'm not so sure on that.

Julien Leparoux

or

Miguel Mena

I myself would take Mena, and think Leparoux has been falling off big time. I backed Leparoux for a long time and was big on the things he was doing, but heck I think I would even take Alonso Quinonez over Leparoux at Turfway right now.

Thoughts??

Miguel Mena. I'd go bankrupt if I put a frenchman on my horse.

God, those two guys arent even in the same league fellas.

Leparoux will be a star

Mena will be riding at Mountaineer eventually

Why is Frenchy riding at Turfway still and not down at Gulf???

Easy.....lep-a-roooo!

Well look at where he's from and how many times they've surrendered. :D

I don't think he wants to leave the local "split-tail."

Leparoux. Most definately :D.

Katy

The one thing that I have noticed with Frenchy is that he tends to be wide alot. At Turfway though, he usually is on the best horse.

Hard to answer this question because Mena does not have anywhere near the connections that Lep has, thus limiting his option. Mena gets that opportunity, he will impress. Guy used to be scared but now he is ruthless, I have seen him put people into the rail, trick others to trying to make him drift wide, and just down right take it to people there. He is improved a million fold since riding here at Arlington, he could easily win the riding title here next year I think as long as Douglas doesn't come back

is this a serious post ? leparoux is a star in 2 years he could be the best jockey we have ... mena in my opinion is not even close to leparoux

He'll be back at Ellis to defend his title.

Are you saying he could be the best jockey in the states? LOL

biancone
 

He is tied to Biancone, who will return after the winter in Cali . Lepar and Bejarano will be kentucky bound for a long time, imho.

He will come to Arlington all meet and try to win this title with his recent success, he has alot of connections up here. I know a trainer that told him to go south (Ellis and Turfway) to improve because he was only getting a couple rides here a day.

Haber, a member of this board, know Mena well

Well if Torres doesn't come back he'll have a shot of beating Emigh. Maybe.

Pillow

Please dont count out Urial Lopez

It really all depends on who comes. With the way Bridgmo is riding he will need to come back to get some friggin confidence. If you get Douglas/Bridgmo/Emigh then he won't get the opportunity but if Douglas and Bridgmo stay away, then Mena has a shot to beat Emigh.

Torres, he is a good rider but he is too sporatic, I heard he was considering going back to Saudi Arabia

Since Julien has lost his bug things have changed some. Prior to this I would have never even asked my trainer to get him up on my horses knowing that he would not ride for a small timer like me. But it does go to show you how things change when he was at my barn last week trying to hustle mounts for my horses.

I will say that Julien is very good after the race in talking with you about your horse. I appreciate it alot and I think he has good instincts.

I have not had Mena up so I do cannot compare him with Julien in that regards.

For what its worth right now I like Dean Butler up on my horses at TP.

thanks

Dean Butler has the finish of 99 cent woodstain.

i am saying that eventually he could be the best.... he is very talented i saw him in person the whole saratoga meet and he is very impressiveand i cought a big score on w/ him on a horse named saddlers trick... it was first time turf i forget the odds but i had 80wps and him on top in tri and exacta, it was my biggest score of the meet.

No one picked Fernando Jara????

How many G1 wins he had last year
5 I think. He rides very cool under pressure for young jock

Mena is a very good young jock.....he might not be at the same level of Leparoux but Leparoux rides for much better stables which has something to do with his win percentage.

I think Mena is thinking about riding Kentucky year round but those plans could have change...before he went down to Kentucky from Arlington he was going to winter at Auqueduct.

I like Mena a lot because he gets all he can out of his horse and rides it hard to the wire which picks up a lot of 3rd and 4th place checks for the horse's owner, rather then the horse finishing 5th or 6th.

I like Jara alot too, caught a lot of nice priced horses with him, I remember one of my first big days when he won on a horse called Cupid's Arrow at Belmont about 3 years ago...I think the horse was trained by Linda Lewis...hit everything in that race, Win/Place, tri, and exacta. I think the horse was 9-1 or 10-1. Jara must have been about 16 in that race. Although Jara gives you some rides lately and your left think what the hell was he doing?

Probably Leparoux but the gap between the two isn't as big as some may believe. Mena always has had talent; he just is getting better mounts and a chance to showcase it. When he left Chicago to go to Ellis I thought he would be leading rider down there and I cashed on him quite a bit.

If the race was on turf then I would go with Leparoux. However, both are very good on dirt. Leparoux seems to have a little something extra when he rides on the grass. Also, Leparoux is totally awesome when it comes to giving feedback on your horse. He prob the best in the business when it comes to that. We have some very good jocks out there that are under the age of 30.

All this talk of great young jocks and we hear about Mena and Leparoux? No Rosie?

I will say that Bridgmohan might be better than Lep or Mena.

Shes a better rider than Mena.

Both Bridgmohans combined arent better than Lepraroux.

I agree on the Bridgmohans. I don't think very much of Shaun and I probably saw 1/2 of Jermaine's Calder rides live last year and I don't think he'll be more than the 2006 version of the 2005 Jeffrey Sanchez, who could be the poster child of the "Anti-Weight Doesn't Matter" campaign.

I actually hope Napravnik does well as it has never been easy for a woman to hit the big time as a jockey. I don't follow Maryland much but I just feel that with few exceptions it's a reach to say an apprentice will be a good journeyman, though both Castro and Leparoux both showed a lot more than most high percentage apprentices.

Hell, Rosmary Homeister, Jr. won an Eclipse Award as leaading Apprentice.

Now if one can only understand what he's saying.

I hear Bridgmohan isn't doing well over the Inner dirt now but the guy was very, very good in 2005. Good enough to ride Asmussen's best horses, wherever they were. I think Shaun is best on closers, and the inner dirt really isn't suited to that style.

all these jockeys that use guys are naming are solid... at best, i think julian is a level about all of them

ANna is already a much more polished rider than Rosemarry will ever be

We'll see how she does without the bug. And though Homeister is no longer very good, she has won about 1800 races so Napravnik has a long way to go.

Rosemary used to be a far better rider not long ago than she is now. She beat out Cornelio and Eibar to win a Hialeah meet riders title about 6-7 years ago.

I remember when she was a good rider, unfortunately its only a memory

I think Anna will be as serious as any female rider can be

turfway
 

there seems to be a lot of talk about the Turfway jocks. Didn't that track have a ton of female jocks at one time? Where did they all go. I hink the reason a lot of female jocks win races is everyone gets caught up staring at their rumps and forgets to go around them in the stretch.

Julien Lep-a-roo goes wide at Turfway because that is where the best going is. Seriously the rail is a terrible place to be. Mena is on a lot of favorites any more. I've got good rides on long shots from Ayala. He was down on the rail with the #1 horse and the first thing he did was take him off of the dead rail



now.. at the Fairgrounds. Talamo seems to being to really well.

well see how napravnik comes back following this injury thats putting her out 8-12 weeks. well see if she can get all her business back without the bug, believe me when youre gone youre forgotten very quickly at the track

ahhhhh just lost my post so here goes again. ashton fitzpatrick would be my choice of jockey of course:) !!!!!! yes shes a very close friend but she can definately ride! she rides a very smart race and doesnt get her horses beat and can win on the front or from way out of it but shes extremely good at breaking a horse from the gate!



as far as the mena/leparoux debate goes......... miguel is a talented jock no doubt. i saw him at turfway a couple of weeks ago and it seems hes matured alot as a person which is a big positive considering he was very cocky when he was here and rubbed alotta people the wrong way. hes very guidry-esque in my mind as a rider since hes very good on a closer......beat us on 1 in a terrific ride last friday night@tp. on the front end hes lacking but has gotten somewhat better in that respect. i remember as a bug he fell asleep on a horse and cost the horse on the wire and dooley embarrassed him with his racecall for it at arlington! elzey is doing wonders for him on and off the track, hes matured in both respects as i mentioned. julien is still the better rider of the 2 and was a absolute pleasure to have ride for us@cd this past summer. very interesting to see the heights he ascends to in his career. mena rides 1 for us saturday@tp, hopefully were takin a picture with him!