Paco Lopez

[Calzone Lord]

Originally Posted by pointman

I posted over the winter that the more I watch this guy ride, the more I like him. He is an aggressive rider that has no problem using a speed horses speed properly and puts his horses in places to win. I would love to see him move his tack to New York, I think he would do very well in the top colony.

I'd love to see him get a shot in the Belmont Stakes.

There were some truly terrible jocks in the Preakness. Luis Contreras and Julien Pimental...they have piss-poor ROI numbers on weaker circuits.

I'm leaning towards Wicked Strong in the Belmont. Rajiv Maragh is a good sprint jockeys.

Dirt Sprint: 640-for-4,428 (15% wins) $1.72 ROI
Synthetic Sprint: 14-for-75 (19% wins) $1.95 ROI

But his numbers are piss poor in route races...

686-for-5,798 (12% wins) $1.45 ROI

Dirt Routes: (13% wins) $1.48 ROI
Turf Routes: (10% wins) $1.45 ROI
Synth Routes: (7% wins) $1.27 ROI

27.5% loss on a dollar from a sample size of close to 6,000 races is pretty brutal. It's close to double the takeout, from a very large sample.

He's been fine riding Wicked Strong in the past, but I'd rather have Maragh on a sprinter.

If Ride On Curlin runs -- and Rosario has to choose between him or Tonalist -- a guy like Paco should be considered for the open mount. He won't be, but he should be.