My Hall of Fame Vote
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We are all in our final stages of picking our favorites for the Kentucky Derby, but I am just not as excited as I should be. As a racing fan, I know how important the Derby is and it was exciting, but over the past couple of weeks…not so much. So I am ready to move on until one of those 20 horses becomes victorious and we start buzzing about the possibility of a Triple Crown. So in trying to keep with the Kentucky Derby theme without going over it again, I am going to talk about the recent finalists for the Hall of Fame this year. Ok, so you are probably wondering what that has to do with the Derby, well did you know that all the finalists for the jockeys have a combined 17,722 wins between them and only 3 of those wins came on the biggest stage…the first Saturday in May. There are four finalists this year and any one of them could take the honor and deserve it.
I am going to start it off with the repeat entry, Alex Solis Sr. Most of us are familiar with his resume, but here is a brief of it. Solis has won about 4860 races in his career which spans over thirty years. He has never won a Kentucky Derby, but he has won many other prestigious races such as the Florida Derby, Santa Anita Derby, Preakness, Dubai World Cup and the Breeder’s Cup Classic to name a few. Solis was also honored by his peers in 1997 with the George Woolf Memorial Award.
Sticking with our “Derby Theme”, I will talk about the one jockey in the bunch that has not only managed to win the Derby once, but two more times after that. Calvin Borel’s three Derby wins have come over the past four years. No easy feat, especially with the horses he was given (Street Sense not included). Borel has won about 4830 races in his career and has become somewhat of the “it” jockey over the past 4 years. He won the Derby, he won the Preakness, the Oaks, the Haskell and the Woodward and that was all in one year. He was overlooked that year (robbed actually) of the title of Jockey of the Year, but his peers saw to it that he was given their ‘highest honor’ with the George Woolf Memorial Award. This Louisiana native has met the President and the Queen of England and has also appeared on David Letterman and I am sure still made it back to clean the barns for his brother the next morning. His earning only top off at a little over $114 million, low compared to the rest on this list, but I think it is how he plays the game that makes him such a fan favorite.
I was asked a couple weeks back why I boast so much about some jockeys and not others (Leparoux and Velazquez in particular) and I simple answered “because they are my favorite”. Well, now, I get to tell people why I choose Johnny V over so many others. Velazquez has over 4550 wins and earnings of over $244 million in his career that spans only over about 20 years. Yes, he has done all that in just 20 years and he has so many more ahead of him. Anyway, he has never won a Derby but was the heavy favorite last year and was the biggest buzz this year until the Wood Memorial. I wouldn’t worry too much about his lack of Derby wins, because he has managed to win the Oaks, the Belmont, about 8 different Breeder’s Cup races and the Dubai World Cup. His peers also presented him with a George Woolf Award and the voters presented him with an Eclipse Award twice. He was the leading money rider twice and came dangerously close many times since then. Off the track he was just re-elected as the Chairman of the Jockey Guild.
The final pick is…the only jockey to beat Zenyatta. Ok, in all seriousness though, the last entry is Garrett Gomez. I have sung his praises many times before and could sing them all day if you let me. I think he is one of the most amazing riders I will ever get to see and he is the only one to ever beat Zenyatta. He may need a little more than that to get him into the Hall of Fame, so how about the fact that he has been the leading money earner four out of the past five years. He was also the Eclipse Award winner in 2007 & 2008 and should have also been given that honor in 2010. Thankfully, the jockeys do not get it wrong and he was awarded the George Woolf Award in 2011. Gomez has only a little more than 3400 wins under his belt, but some were pretty important wins. This includes about 10 Breeder’s Cups, the Godolphin Mile, the Dubai Golden Shaheen and an overwhelming number of stakes races including the Wood Memorial, the Pacific Classic Stakes and my all time favorite race (ok, maybe second favorite) the 2010 Whitney Handicap. He has accomplished all this while battling his personal demons that forced him off the track for quite awhile. What a comeback he has made! I guess I should end now because as I said, I could go all day talking up Gomez.
I guess after reading this, I don’t have to tell you where my vote would go if I had one. The great thing about it all is that, unlike other sports, we don’t have to wait for our greats to leave the game before we get to honor them with an induction into the Hall of Fame. We have the chance to honor them and see them go on to reach even higher levels. How lucky we are to be racing fans.
Off the subject, just wanted to comment about the recent passing of Jess Jackson; when it comes down to it he provided me with the opportunity to fall in love with this sport. When he ran Rachel in the 2009 Preakness, I was hooked. If not for him, I would not be writing this blog and loving it. Thank you Mr. Jackson!!
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