Ramon Dominguez
This game … it’s the best when you’re winning. It’s the worst when you’re losing. And today, racing is losing one of its most gracious, popular, and successful jockeys of recent years. Ramon Dominguez — at the peak of his career, winner of 4,985 races, earnings of almost $192 million, and the Eclipse award for riding 2010-2012 — announced that he is retiring due to a brain injury suffered in an accident at Aqueduct last January.
David Grening has reactions from the New York racing community in his report on this morning’s news: “It’s just devastating to lose someone like that in our industry,” said Steve Rushing, the rider’s agent. Many share the sentiment.
Good luck to Dominguez as he continues his recovery. He’ll be missed.
2:30 PM Addendum: Here’s a spreadsheet of Dominguez’s record in graded stakes 1999-2012 and lifetime stats by year, compiled by Equibase.
Ramon Dominguez’s 15-year career as a jockey has been more journeyman than money rider. Before moving his tack to New York in 2009, where he swept the leading rider title at every NYRA meet that year and scored his 4000th career win at Aqueduct last March, he dominated the mid-Atlantic circuit, only occasionally breaking through nationally, as he did when Better Talk Now won the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf or Scrappy T collided with Afleet Alex at the top of the Pimlico stretch in the 2005 Preakness Stakes.
In 2010, hard work and talent not only made Dominguez one of the most consistent and capable jockeys in the game, it also made him one of the most successful, with earnings of $16,911,880 and 369 wins, including 43 stakes, five of those G1s. Last night, out-polling Garrett Gomez 124-60, Dominguez won his first Eclipse Award. Of the honor, NYRA handicapper Andy Serling said it best: “Glad to see Ramon Dominguez win the Eclipse for Jockey of the Year. People like him make me proud to work in this industry.”
More Dominguez! Here’s a Flickr gallery of the jockey, with stakes winners Better Talk Now, Gio Ponti, Haynesfield, Fabulous Strike …
More Eclipse Awards: Steve Crist counts votes, Claire Novak recaps, Bill Dwyre celebrates with Horse of the Year Zenyatta’s connections (“I’m so happy for the fans”), Foolish Pleasure lists. And even more reactions via Raceday 360 …
To Ramon Dominguez: The rider reached a milestone on Friday, earning win #4000 aboard Fortyninegeorgest in the second race at Aqueduct. Dominguez, who began riding in 1996, spent his first full season at Saratoga in 2007, and moved his tack full-time to New York in 2009, won an astounding 376 races on the circuit last year, sweeping every riding title. Should he keep up that torrid pace, Dominguez can look forward to hitting win #5000 by 2013.
To Rosie Napravnik: The 21-year-old jockey scored her first graded stakes win in the Cicada Stakes on Liam’s Dream at Aqueduct on Saturday.
To the NTRA: After the embarrassing fizzle that was the March 13 launch of NTRA Live!, the organization rebounded on Saturday with a near-flawless webcast of the Florida Derby, which was displayed on a clutter-free page with clear, helpful links above and a live chat running alongside. NTRA vice president Keith Chamblin told the Thoroughbred Times that the NTRA “added some servers” and did additional site testing in advance of yesterday’s show. The NTRA also apparently removed the requirement to register or login before viewing (perhaps they took Superfecta’s advice?), as it was possible to pull up the page without being prompted to do either. Although demand was probably lower for the Florida Derby webcast than it was for Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, the steps the NTRA took to bolster their capacity to host viewers surely helped make Saturday’s live video a success. Well done!
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