Every jockey at Saratoga Race Course strives to be like Angel Cordero Jr.
The legendary jockey won 14 riding titles during his illustrious career at the upstate New York track, including a staggering 11 in a row.
Cordero said there wasn’t much of a trick to accomplishing that feat, though.
Work hard and ride good horses, he said. `They are the ones who run. You can only ride them.`
Getting those prized mounts isn’t easy, though. A jockey has to be willing to show a trainer that he willing to work hard with a horse in order to earn the ride, no matter if he is a past riding champion or a relative newcomer. Even then, a jockey may be passed over because someone else who is having a better meet is suddenly available to ride.
`To get on the good horses, it’s always been my belief in my 25 years of riding that you come out and work hard in the mornings and work horses out. You see the people and you show them how conscientious and what a good work ethic you have,` said veteran jockey Richard Migliore. `But that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. Now it seems like if you’re popular or your agent’s got the right connections or you’re the new face, then you’re going to get the mounts.`
Migliore is a case study in how even a big-name jockey can struggle to find a good mount at Saratoga. Migliore has only had 31 mounts through the first 10 days of the meet and has reached the winner’s circle once.
`I’m coming back off of a 5-month injury (a broken left leg), so of course you’re in a rebuilding process to begin with, and my outfits haven’t been winning,` said Migliore. `So, the guys that are loyal to me ` like Mike Hushion, and Barclay Tagg’s been giving me a good play, and Allen Jerkins’ been riding me on some horses ` really haven’t gotten off to fast starts at the meet. They’re good horsemen, they’ve got quality horses. It won’t stay that way, but until they start picking up, I’m not going to pick up either.`
Developing good working relationships with trainers is always in a jockey’s best interests, but it doesn’t guarantee job security ` not when tens of thousands of dollars are at stake in even the smallest of claiming races.
`If I have a bad experience with one of them, I stay away from them,` said trainer Linda Rice, who primarily uses Cornelio Velasquez along with Migliore, Desormeaux and Fernando Jara. `If they just gallop them around there and give them what I don’t feel is a strong, aggressive ride, then I don’t want to use them again because I work way too hard in the morning on these horses for them not to make a good effort in the afternoon.
`I’m friendly with all of them ` the ones I use regularly ` but I’m not married to any of them,` she added.
Barclay Tagg ` who counts Migliore and Javier Castellano among his preferred jockeys ` said he wants `guts and brains` in any rider he selects, whether they’re veterans or a young hot shot.
`A guy that’s not really talented ` works hard, nice fellow maybe, but he’s just not talented ` it’s gonna be very hard for him at Saratoga,` said Tagg. `A good, hard-working guy who had won at the other tracks ` he’s got courage and tries hard, he doesn’t have to be a great natural rider ` he can do very well at a lesser track. But here, you’ve got about 10 Hall of Fame riders sitting in that (jockey) room. They didn’t get there because they were chicken.`
Jara is one of the young jockeys that are currently challenging the veterans for mounts. In only his third season in Saratoga, Jara is in the top 10 with six winners ` equal to his career total from his first two seasons.
`Older jockeys are proud,` said Jara. `They got the name, they have the experience, they are very good riders. You have to wait for your time.`
But once that time comes, jockeys have to remember one thing ` it can end just as quickly as it begins. “