Ricardo leads Baze 9946-9926
 

Looks like Jorge Ricardo may well be the 1st jockey to reach the 10,000 winner mark.

He's riding virtually every day at San Isidro, Palermo and La Plata comapred to the 5 day week that Baze is able to ride at Golden Gate.

And I had no comprehension of how many races they run in a day over there. Ricardo managed to win the 13th at San Isidro on Thursday and the 13th at San Isidro yesterday-and they will run NINETEEN races on December 15th at San Isidro which is the biggest race day in South America

They are both 5000 wins behind harness driver Herve Filion who retired with 15154 wins. He may have gotten thousands more if hadn't he been barred from driving for more than 7 years.

Would have been a lot more if he didn't stiff so many.

I thought that but waited for someone else to post it. Maybe 25000 wins.

A lot of that went on in the Roosevelt Raceway days at the diner across from Nathans. Walter Case would have probably gotten more than Herve if he could have stayed out of jail.

That's a great point to remember next time anyone gets a wild hair to load up on a harness race.

Baze wins 9 on Saturday and Sunday to cut Ricardo's lead to 12.

9947-9935

1 Jorge Ricardo 9,947
2 Russell Baze 9,933

9,933 0r 9,935?

http://paginadeturf.wordpress.com/english/

also http://www.contracostatimes.com/spor...nclick_check=1

Russell could catch up.

We certainly are.

Jockeys’ world statistics - Up to December 20, 2007

1 Jorge Ricardo 9,969
2 Russell Baze 9,947

I would imagine this Ricardo guy isn't racing against 4 and 5 horse fields most of the time. Probably a little higher class of horse as well.

I think it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. He gets to ride 7 days a week and there are probably an average of 4-5 more races a day on his cards that at Golden Gate. But as you say the fields are bigger. Last Saturday he had 16 rides but with an average field size of 13-14.

It would be interesting to get an expert opinion on the difference of the quality between Golden Gate/Bay Meadows and San Isidro/Palermo.

An injury of more than a few weeks would definitely see Baze recapture the lead but Ricardo's probably on course for the feat by the 3rd week in January and being over 3 years junior to Baze-looks a certainty to have the world record on retirement.

San Isidro and Palermo are the elite tracks of Argentina; Palermo is only dirt and San Isidro is for turf, although they have a dirt track for bad weather. Sort of like Belmont and Saratoga on class. Among the racing countries in South America, Argentina's only rival for the top spot is Brazil, where turf racing is the major focus. Uruguay might be comparable to the Bay Area tracks - decent level of racing, good horses come out of there at times, but the biggest stakes races usually go to raiders from the 'big' leagues.

Would Ricardo have more opportunities to ride a lot more winners in Argentina than Brazil? I was intrigued when he moved there last year-at a fairly late stage in his career.

Ricardo went to Argentina by 2 reasons mainly:

First, here in Brazil horse racing is going badly...race courses are almost empty and wagering level is decreasing...(although breeding is doing well)...his contracts should have been not very good for a jockey of his category...in Argentina, stables may pay him better than here...since purses there are a lot better;

Second, here in Brazil he wouldn't be able to pursue Laffit Pincay's world record and then the 10 thousand wins...since races here happen 3 days a week....at Argentina there is horse racing almost everyday.

Thanks. The website that's tracking the race-says that Ricardo's best year saw him winning 479 races (compared to Baze's best 444)-was that last year-or did he record that number when he was in Brazil and raced more often.

Do you think he will go back to Brazil, for a short while, so he can win his 10,000th at Gavea.

He won Gavea's stats for 17 or 18 years in a row, i think...10 years ago, we used to have races almost everyday here....horse racing enter into a decline in the last 10 or 15 years...so i think he did that when he was here...not at Argentina...

I think he will win his 10,000th at Argentina, since he is under contract with Stud Rubio B and he only comes to Brazil when there are extremely important races, like GP Brasil, GP São Paulo or the Derbies.

as of 12/29

Jorge Ricardo 9,981
Russell Baze 9,953

With one days racing left in 07-the gap reaches 30 for the 1st time-9984-9954.