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Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin
I agree with you guys about Jon Court. He is nothing special. He's certainly not a top rider. But neither are most of the guys in New York. I've seen plenty of guys over the years that were considered top riders back East and a lot of these guys couldn't ride at all. Dating back to the early 1980s, I saw so many of these guys come out here and I couldn't belive how bad they were. I was shocked that these guys were so successful back East. A couple of guys that come to mind are Jeff Fell and Randy Romero. Mike Smith is certainly a much better rider than Fell or Romero, but Smith is not in the league of Stevens, McCarron, Delahoussaye, P Val, Pincay, Espinoza, etc. Yet I think Mike Smith was the leading rider in New York for a while back in the 1990s. Chavez was the leading rider back there for a while. Typically the 7th or 8th best jockey out here is better than the leading rider back there. It was like that for over 15 years. You would have guys like Chavez leading the standings back there, yet he wouldn't have even been in the top 10 out west. It's finally starting to change, but just because a guy is a top rider back there, it doesn't make him a great jockey. That guy Ramon Dominguez looks terrible coming down the stretch. He can't even ride and whip a horse at the same time. He doesn't exactly look athletic out there.
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I agree with you that the west coast use to have by far a better colony. I have always been a fan of west coast racing. Eddie D is probably my favorite jockey of all time and i dont think anyone can argue that the lineup in So cal in the 90's at times was the greatest ever assembled. Remember- Kent D won a few riding titles with that lineup in tact.
Times have changed. So Cal racing isnt what it use to be and the riders follow the money and the fast horses. That happens to be out east for the most part these days.