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Maldonado in my opinion has been the best jockey on the So. Cal circuit for the past year, better than Gomez and right up there with Bejarano. I base my evaluation of jockeys and harness drivers on how many non-contenders a rider wins with. Maldonado consistently wins with horses that are not one of the top four fastest horses in the race, which is very unusual since over 80% of the winners are one of the top four fastest.
Gomez and Bejarano get much better stock. Maldonado has been 1st or 2nd in the standings for several months without riding horses for Baffert, almost impossible to do out there since Baffert wins almost a third of the races at some meets.
Maldonado has that intangible, horses simply run faster for him.
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