Originally Posted by Calzone Lord (Post 901744)

There was some initial talk that this bug rider was going to move his tack to NY at the start of AQU and ride there at least until his bug expires in February.

He's had just 240 mounts in the US so far -- all at Calder -- and he's been statistically sensational. He's showing a strong flat-bet profit in every conceivable category... 2yo, 3yo, older horses, dirt, turf, sprint, route.

Obviously just 240 rides is way too few to statistically judge a jockey imo...but Jilver is getting it done at Calder and his numbers are similar to the ones Junior Alvarado posted there as a bug ... albeit Junior had a much larger sample size.




Jilver came up the rail and took the feature race at Calder yesterday at 6/1 odds in a spot where he didn't get his 5lbs bug allowance.

He has the potential to be a hot-bug on the AQU Inner dirt if he ever gets there. I think they might be making a mistake keeping him in Florida like they did with Junior Alvarado. Junior really got scraps at best when he stayed at GP and missed a great opportunity for quick exposure like lesser caliber of riders (Joe Talamo) have taken advantage of.

The slots situation may make the Inner dirt meet tougher -- but still more attractive.

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord (Post 902030)

He was the top rider in Panama over the few months he rode there before coming here.

I saw he was on a $21.60 winner in the second at CRC today.

It feels like his bug has been wasted because he has no name right now and every jockey loses an edge and big selling point when the bug is gone.

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind (Post 901848)

Rajiv is riding at Gulfstream.

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind (Post 903772)

Correction....he is staying in NY.

Originally Posted by GPK (Post 903776)

Just curious, but did he give a reason why he changed his mind?

Originally Posted by Calzone Lord (Post 903778)

On his twitter page it says:

Originally Posted by GPK (Post 903776)

Just curious, but did he give a reason why he changed his mind?

Originally Posted by blackthroatedwind (Post 903786)

Yes.

Originally Posted by tabs (Post 903811)

Yup, here's what I had to say regarding Rajiv yesterday in the selections thread!

Maragh, my least favorite jock who rides some nice horses! I will never understand why any outfit at "major tracks" use this guy.... I've been on the losing end of his notorious "bad rides" costing me thousands......

I don't think he watches replays intelligently enough nor does he seem to understand race setups or the abilities of the horse he's riding let alone the other horses in the race imo....

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie (Post 903851)

He's a jockey, thus unable to fathom strategy beyond that of a preschooler.

With jockeys, it's just a matter of degree of dumbness.

Originally Posted by tabs (Post 903859)

I’d appreciate if someone could give an explanation why Rajiv gets the quality of mounts that he does!!

His agent is one heck of a salesmen.....

Originally Posted by Indian Charlie (Post 904005)

I don't know, but why did Chris McCarron get such awesome mounts when he clearly overthought everything and repeated his same mistakes for about ten years.

To his credit, he did eventually figure out that strangling the speed out of a horse in a route race never works.

Originally Posted by Dahoss (Post 904009)

It appears he has taught the new jocks his same bad mistakes. Route races in this country are a joke at this point, with the way they are being ridden.

It's like everyone rides like it's the first meet at Keeneland, where everything was a 1/4 mile dash to the finish. Surface doesn't matter. It's just one grab after grab.