Quote:
Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
How many guys riding at racino dumps with similar "ability" - if you can call it that - end up later regretting that they didn't try to make it at a major circuit like Valdivia did?
How many, at best, meat and potato jocks wish they could have ridden excellent horses like Big Jag, Val Royal, Aldebaran, Heat Haze, Singletary, Rail Trip to wins in major races?
He's 6th in the standings at Delaware where the meets leading rider is Anna Rosie Napravnick. I agree that it was without a doubt the right move to make and he's making more money now ... but he got over for a long, long time in So. Cal.
Think of a guy like Kerwin John ... he rode regularly at Mountaineer Park in 2003 and was a 3% jockey there. You could have taken a poll of trainers asking to rate the top 20 jockeys at MNR and no one would have named Kerwin. The very next year - he's 8th in the standings at Del Mar and has more wins and a higher win percentage than a very accomplished jockey like Mike Smith.
He goes from a 3% win percentage and having no luck finding a decent mount anywhere in West Virginia in 2003 - to having three mounts on the Breeders Cup card in 2004. One of them, Island Fashion, was like 5/1 or so in the $2 million BC Distaff off her win in the Lady's Secret last out.
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I'm not saying that it wasn't worth a try for Valdivia to ride in Southern California. You give it a shot for a few years and if it doesn't work out then you go to a smaller circuit. Jose just wasted too many years out here. He had been struglling for a really long time. He had been riding out here for at least the last 10 years or so. I don't think he was ever in the top 15 out here for the last 5 years.
I don't know what your point was about Kerwin John. Kerwin John can't win a race out here. If a guy is struggling at Monmouth, he has no chance to make it in Southern California. He could get lucky for a short period of time but it's not going to last.
Southern California has always been the major league. If a guy can't make it in the minor league, he's not going to make it in the majors. When in a guy from the majors goes to the minors, he will usually do well. There are several examples of this. M. C. Baze is 2nd leading rider at Arlington right now. I think Corey Nakatani was leading rider at Oaklawn this year.
Valdivia can't be leading rider at Delaware because he doesn't ride there enough. He's splitting his time between Delaware and Monmouth. He has even ridden at Belmont and Philly Park. He's won about 45 races in the past 3 months compared to winning 4 races in 4 months on the west coast. This is a case of a guy going from the major leagues to the minor leagues so he will obviously do much better against the much easier competition back east.