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Originally Posted by biggestal99
1. Nope you are correct I have never seen a pro riding in an amateur race. But I have seen many times an amateur riding in a pro race.
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It happened at Aqueduct in the mid 1990's. I had never seen an amateur jockey race in NY. I was with a friend at the time who was a racing journalist from England. He said amateur rider races were common in England -- especially jump races. We were surprised when we saw their was an amateur rider race. He said the key to handicapping the race was to look for the jockey how had the best looking form when sitting on the horse in the post parade. Sure enough, there was a jockey sitting on a horse that had perfect posture. He was sitting the same way Jerry Bailey sat -- upright and full of confidence. The jockey won at 3-1, but when the race ended the announcer said to hold all tickets because there was an inquiry. The race was declared a non-betting race because the winning jockey was a pro from Panama. I knew it was too good to be true. But at least I learned a good tip for the future.
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2. Yeah I am old, I can remember riding the bus to the big M in 1977 and two old railbirds talking about a bomber that came in the last race at Belmont, Lebon at 50-1.
I take a look at the form. Lebon? should have been 5000-1. needless to say had no idea it was actually Cinzano.
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/11/22/a...-saratoga.html
what a great time to be a horseplayer. Belmont in the day. Big M at night.
Allan
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Those were the days! Even back in the 1990s Big M was racing at night if I am not mistaken.
Of course, nowadays you can bet Europe at 6:00am, Belmont in the afternoon, Santa Anita late afternoon into early evening, Mountaineer at night, and then Hong Kong and Australia until 6:00am.