Ramon A. Dominguez
 

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Ramon A. Dominguez (born November 24, 1976 in Caracas, Venezuela) is a Champion jockey in American Thoroughbred horse racing.

Dominguez began riding horses at age 16 in his nativeVenezuela in show jumping then turned to riding thoroughbreds in flat racing events. He emigrated to the United States where he began riding at Florida's Hialeah Park Race Track in 1996.

In 2001 he got his big break by becoming the winningest jockey in the U.S. and repeated it in 2003 and won the 2004 Isaac Murphy Award for having the highest winning percentage. In the 2006 Kentucky Derby, Dominguez rode Bluegrass Cat to a second place finish behind Barbaro.In the 2009 Breeders Cup Classic, he rode Gio Ponti to a second place finish behind Zenyatta. In March 2006 and again in January 2007, he rode five winners from eight mounts at Aqueduct Racetrack. On February 17, 2010, Ramon Dominguez won the first five races in a row at Aqueduct Racetrack.

Ramon Dominguez earned his 4,000th career win on March 19, 2010 at New York's Aqueduct Racetrack.On January 17, 2011 Ramon won the Eclipse Award for 2010 Outstanding Jockey.

yeah

for the most still and stoic jock riding today and a very deliberate long, slow whip technique.

Good call.

Must have a great rotator cuff.

My rear-end cringes when he winds-up that windmill whip of his. Best jock in the game.

I really thought Gomez should have gotten the award. He didnt win any NYRA jockey titles this year but he did win some big races in 2010.

Well deserved..great rider and a gentleman...a terrific ambassador for the game.

I thin Dominguez is a good rider, but seriously he was less deserving of both Gomez and Velazquez in my opinion, his main strength was the earnings title, but he needed 300 more mounts than Velazquez to do it and 700 more mounts than Gomez, he had 5 Grade 1 wins to JV's 13 and Gomez's 10. I know JV rides Pletchers so naturally he's going to have more Grade 1 opportunities on live horses, but taking JV out of the picture than Gomez won The Dubai Sheema, The Foster, The Whitney, The United Nations and 3 Breeders Cup races including the Classic, JV won 2 and Ramon 0, riding titles are all fine and dandy, but seriously, is winning riding titles when you are riding the favorite 98% of the time really that difficult? I would wager that there is not a jockey in North America who would have rather had the year Ramon did than Gomez or Velazquez. JMO

You know, not every meet is like the inner at the Big A. He did/does pretty well against some deep colonies at Belmont and at Saratoga. The big horses and races will eventually come for him, it's just a matter of time.

First of all, Dominguez does not ride the favorite 98% of the time, I believe you know that already though.

More importantly, Dominguez's performance at Belmont and Saratoga solidified his credentials. Between his number of winners and earnings, he had a very strong case to win the award.

Gomez is a great rider but he did nothing special at Monmouth and was an also-ran at Saratoga. Velazquez's success goes as Pletcher's does. No one gets legged up on more live horses than John Velazquez and aside from a four week stretch at Saratoga, it was a typical year for him.

Dominguez deserved the award and simply saying that he shouldn't win because he didn't ride a BC winner is short-sighted. If Dominguez is ever able to develop a relationship with a trainer like JV has with Pletcher (a relationship JV had when Dominguez was still in Maryland) then you can bet his success will be tremendous.

I am not disparaging Ramon, but how can you say he is not on the favorite the VAST majority of the time? It has to be more than 90% of the time, especially at this time of year, and how can you possibly say Gomez was an also ran at Saratoga, as if he had remotely comparable mounts, please, whatever, Dominguez has his strengths and Gomez has his, primarily winning the big races. :)

ramon deserves it because one time i saw him ride a full day of grade 1's at the santa anita breeders cup in california and then made it back for a claiming race at aqueduct the next day at 12:30 pm EST.

...or something like , ride horses- cab to LAX, - plane flight to JFK,
-sleep, -eat and get to the track in the AM while losing 3 hours of time travel.

thats commitment.

Why doesnt Ramon step out of NYRA sometimes and ride regularly at Gulfstream, Keeneland, Churchill like Johnny V, Castellano, Gogo, Leparaoux, Desormaeux. He is beating up on jocks like David Cohen, Eddie Castro, and Channing Hill at Aqu right now.

He rides against those guys all year but for the winter. Ramon stayed in the Mid-Atlantic for a long time so he didn't have to move his family. I would guess that's why he's not too anxious to move South for the Winter.

Gomez wasn't an also ran at Saratoga.











He was an also ran at Monmouth. On pure ability you can't even compare the two. Dominguez is far better than Gomez. Both guys get the best mounts, the diffference is Ramon wins on them....Gomez....not so much.

Agreed, both guys are great riders, watching them both ride for any extended time, it is easy to conclude Ramon is and has been the better rider for the last few years. He is one of only a handful of riders that can make a difference in a race and the fact he is named on a horse, his reputation alone makes him underlaid and often the favorite by default.

also ran is a bit of a stretch. not saying one guy is better than the other but...

18% winners at monmouth, nearly 50% in the money. it took the next closest guy with comparable starts 200 more mounts to beat his earnings.

http://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbT...&CY=USA&STAT=J

Lets not even compare each riders big wins last year, don't embarass yourself. I'll give you Ramon rides many more winners, but also many more horses, like 700 a year more, yet barely beats him in earnings, you know why? One wins the big races, one not so much.

It's also because they are at different points in their career. Gomez is at the point where he can choose not to ride certain races. Dominguez isn't there yet, but he's pretty close.

I think Gomez is a very good rider and his performance during Breeders Cup weekend was great, since he was riding with basically one arm. But Dominguez had a better year.

Not a fan of Ramon , ever since he cost me 40,000 on Scrappy T in The Preakness, he blew the turn and cost me a 100 DD Pimlico Special/Preakness Double.

exactly
:tro:

OK, WTF are you talking about? If you think Scrappy T was the best horse in that Preakess you are out of your mind.

What defined his better year than gomez?

He dominated the toughest colony in the country for the entire year. He understands pace and race setups better than anyone on the game IMO. He rode more winners than Gomez and earned more money riding than Gomez did in 2010.

Besides that.

Cooler whipping motion than Gomez?

He's good lookin'.

yeah, but one throws in alot of bad rides and the other....not so much.....

Let me ask you a question ( and I personally like Garrett as well as you ), do you think a jockey should be rewarded for riding pretty much only for certain outfits, mostly high profile, and in big races, while intentionally not riding for many cheaper outfits and in smaller pursed races over one that rides every day, in many races a day, often very cheap races ( in purse and quality ), for anybody and everybody, while forming no allegiances to any big outfits....and beats the former rider for specific riding titles?

Let me add something else....Ramon Dominguez rode NO HORSE in the Cigar Mile because he knew the connections of Haynesfield and a Dutrow longshot both wanted him, he had ridden both in their prior races, and he didn't want to be unfair to either participant. Do you think, and be honest, that Garrett would have done the same thing? No, this doesn't play into an Eclipse award discussion, save that perhaps Haynesfield would have won the Cigar ( surely Ramon would have chosen him ), and Ramon would have won another Grade 1 and more money.

Sorry Hoss, he rode significantly more horses than Gomez ( 700) and barely beat him in earnings, less than 500,000, Gomez barely rode over 700 horses the whole year and earned 16 million. He didn't win the Saratoga title so he didn't dominate all year, and sorry, what half way decent rider wouldn't dominate Aqueduct? This is beginning to sound eerily familiar, next we're going to hear he did more for the game. I think the thing that sepeartes truly great riders from mere good riders are winning the big races, that is much more important tp me than winning riding titles, but again, that is just my opinion, I certainly respect yours, just saying.

Andy, and if he had won the Cigar it would have only made 6 Grade 1. I know what you are saying to an extent, but any way you look at it Ramon is not riding crap, he rides for all the top trainers and all the best horses from the lesser trainers, he is always on a top mount, Gomez did not have one single major barn he rode for, Baffert pulled that crap with Lucky, Pletcher used Castellano as much if not more than Garrett and his main number one trainer died! ( Frankel) Garrett rode fewer horses for Clement and Dutrow than Ramon did, he rode a hodge podge for mutliple trainers, he rode absolute filth the majority of the time at Belmont and Saratoga, hell not one of his Breeders Cup races were favored, I just think that Garrett had a much better year, and not even close really.

I've seen a few.

You didn't really answer my question.

Garrett didn't ride for the people you mentioned because they preferred others or didn't like that he spun them when he could be more choosy. What goes around comes around in this game.

He is a terrific rider....but he didn't deserve the Eclipse this year. It is NOT an award that only recognizes a rider's record in Big races. This is part of the equation. But far from the only thing to be recognized. Garrett was the best rider with far less mounts than most....but that's not the criteria for this award. Now, if you want to argue here that these awards were shown this year to have no criteria, that's fine, but then you better take back your argument with Dahoss.

I'll give you an analogy that you might find reasonably fair...


If I came here and said Nick Zito deserved the Trainer of the Year over Todd because he came really close in many big races, won his share, and didn't have NEARLY the kind of stock, or the numbers, that Todd has, people would say I was crazily defending a friend.....and they would be right. They would not say I didn't necessarily make some fair points....but that my argument in its entirity was unsound and I was only making it because Nick is my close friend.

They would be right.

For the internet record....this was analogy....I don't believe what I was suggesting. Todd and Jerry Hollendorfer were the only two deserving candidates.

Well therein lays the problem, there apparently is no criteria, so we each move on with our own opinions on it.

No, we make the best choice, and this year it was Ramon.

Look, I know you LOVE Gomez and I have a lot of respect for him as a rider. But I was asked a question and provided facts for answers to the question.

Dominguez won more races and earned more money. IMO that is why he had a better year. I think you'd admit (if you were being honest) that you are extremely biased when it comes to Gomez, so this is sort of a pointless discussion.

Truly friendship doesn't make me lose objectivity, I'm just saying I would have rather of had the year Gomez had as a rider last year than Ramon, simple as that.