Bejarano

[Tall One]

Originally Posted by Knowclew

Not a fan of his at all, but I suspect Kent D may be lurking and benefit
a ton, if he can stay away from GoGo and PVal.

He won at SA today, and I believe they said he picked-up mount.

[Greyfox]

If Bejarano is healthy, he's as good or better than I've seen in decades of watching racing.

He is "at one with the horse" at any point in a race, with respect to balance and timing, and hence maximizes that horse's potential on any given race or day.

[precocity]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

If Bejarano is healthy, he's as good or better than I've seen in decades of watching racing.

He is "at one with the horse" at any point in a race, with respect to balance and timing, and hence maximizes that horse's potential on any given race or day.

right on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Greyfox

If Bejarano is healthy, he's as good or better than I've seen in decades of watching racing.

He is "at one with the horse" at any point in a race, with respect to balance and timing, and hence maximizes that horse's potential on any given race or day.

He's the best in the game. If i were to rank jocks in America, he would be ranked first on my list.

[Thebigguy]

Originally Posted by Stillriledup

He's the best in the game. If i were to rank jocks in America, he would be ranked first on my list.

I would have him somewhere around 10. I know he got hurt and that's to bad, but I think some of you are being overly generous.

[Stillriledup]

Originally Posted by Thebigguy

I would have him somewhere around 10. I know he got hurt and that's to bad, but I think some of you are being overly generous.

You can have a mulligan, it was early in the morning when you posted this, we will let it slide because we like you.

[Mad Scientist]

In my opinion ...

Best big race rider - Mike Smirh

Best rider day in and day out - Russell Baze

Bejarano would not even crack my top 10. Sure he was cleaning up at SA but really who else is riding out there ? Talamo is really the only other top level jock. The rest are mostly just Los Alamitos jockeys. Not that they are bad, but it's obvious that Bejarano is going to get most of the live mounts.

[dannyhill]

Originally Posted by Mad Scientist

In my opinion ...

Best big race rider - Mike Smirh

Best rider day in and day out - Russell Baze

Bejarano would not even crack my top 10. Sure he was cleaning up at SA but really who else is riding out there ? Talamo is really the only other top level jock. The rest are mostly just Los Alamitos jockeys. Not that they are bad, but it's obvious that Bejarano is going to get most of the live mounts.

Everything you said above is 200% true for Russell Baze.

[Mad Scientist]

Here is 10 jockeys just off the top of my head in no particular order that if I owned a derby horse I would rather have ride for me than Bejarano ...

Mike Smith
Russell Baze
Joel Rosario
John Valesquez
Julien Leparoux
Rosie Napravnik
Jose Ortiz
Joe Talamo
Calvin Borel
Joe Bravo

And that is just the first 10 that came to mind. I am sure I left at least another 10 out that if I sat and actually thought about it I would come up with.

If Bejarano is on chalk than he's not going to screw it up. He's a competent rider. I just rarely ever see him move horses up ....

[Mad Scientist]

Did you mean to say that you thought everything I said was correct except for Baze being best day in and day out rider ?

[ultracapper]

Good luck to Bejarano. He's been one of my favorites for years. Having said that, there were a number of times over the past 4 or 5 years when he and GoGo would be dueling with the 2 best horses in the race, and Gomez would school him. Now I know Gomez at the top of his game is exceptional, but Bejarano has some work to do it would seem to get to Gomez's level. And he can move a horse up, particularly if it's a closer. His timing is pretty sharp to the wire.

[ultracapper]

And I'll take him over Talamo any day. Talamo can get a little rough with his mounts in the stretch.

[dannyhill]

Originally Posted by Mad Scientist

Did you mean to say that you thought everything I said was correct except for Baze being best day in and day out rider ?

What you said about Bejarano applies to Baze at Golden Gate.

[dasch]

Originally Posted by Mad Scientist

If Bejarano is on chalk than he's not going to screw it up. He's a competent rider. I just rarely ever see him move horses up ....

I STRONGLY disagree with this statement. Bejarano is the ONLY rider who rides socal day in and day out that improves horses he rides on a daily basis over other jockeys and its not even close. Thats why he won the last meet by about 40 wins over the next rider.

[Mad Scientist]

That's a fair point that Baze gets the vast majority of live mounts at Golden Gate similiar to Bajarano at SA, but Baze has been doing it consistently at Golden Gate for MANY years and it was not always like it is now . Baze was getting a lot of winners back when their was a very strong jockey colony at golden gate/ bay meadows.There was a time they had Baze , Hansen , warren, r .gonzalez, m. Castaneda all riding there at the same time and blaze was still getting it done.