Quote:
Originally Posted by LARHAGE
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
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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.