Quote:
Originally Posted by SuperPickle
I'm not sure if it was Wednesday or Thursday but I was watched a race to see a friend of a friend's horse race. It was a one turn turf race. Mugs says the looks like a supermodel. Says he's the best horse he's seen all card. Won and paid $30. That was 2-3 days ago.
Simply put the guy knows more about horses than this entire forum.
I also want to say something about his riding ability. He was in that legendary NYRA jocks room of the late 80's to late 90's. You had Cordero, Smith, Julie, Santos, Bailey, Robbie Davis, a baby Johnny V, and Antley. I'm sure I forgot a couple guys. Outside of Johnny V. He's last man standing. He's the missing link. Anyone from that era remembers he was lucky to get 4-5 mounts a day at Toga. When he had that career resurgence at the end right before he got hurt I kept using that as a point of showing of how much better those guys are than today's guys.
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I met Migliore in 1981 the year he won an Eclipse Award as racing's top apprentice jockey. He rode first call and primarily for Steve DiMauro of Wajima fame and an ex-rider himself. Joe Shea was his agent. Shea was once the agent for Ron Turcotte, among others.
I don't recall The Mig ever cracking the Top 5 in the standings in those early years against NYRA's hall of fame jock's room but he always held his own with them. I always said he was the most underrated rider of his time, fwiw, but I truly believed it then, and still do today as well.
At and about the same time the great horseman, Mike Hushion, was building his very own racing stable after many years working for H. Allen Jerkens. One year in the late 80s and early 90s (?) it all clicked for Hushion. In a Racing Form article Hushion mentioned the success he and Migliore were having. Hushion said that Migliore helped him immensely on his own time in the early years and he (Migliore) never asked me (Hushion) for any thing in return. I promised him that once I got some horses of some count, I'd ride him.
Hushion was good to his word and he and Migliore would win a boat load of races together for many, many years after.
Anyone who even remotely knows Migliore knows that his 'greatness' as a racing analyst and commentator is no fluke.