Let It Ride: Baze Is Best Jockey for Your Dollars

Eddie Delahoussaye is the leading jockey at Hollywood Park with 13 winners. Does that make him the best jockey? Or is he simply riding better horses than everyone else?

The Times has developed a jockey-rating system that takes into account the perceived quality of the horses that jockeys have been riding. This power rating is broken down into both win and in-the-money ratings. Those two figures are combined and divided by two to get the final power rating.

A jockey who can achieve a rating of 100 is considered outstanding. The 100 rating means that if you were to bet $2 on that jockey to win in every race you would neither win nor lose. The same holds true with the in-the-money rating except that the betting price is $6 because win, place and show bets are made.

If a jockey has a rating of more than 100, he has produced a profit for those who have bet exclusively on that jockey.

This rating system enables jockeys who get superior performances out of longshots to compete with the more well-known jockeys who usually ride the favorites. As a jockey gets hot, it is likely he will bring those who bet on him lower payoffs. In that case, he might get better horses to ride and drop in the ratings system.

A jockey must have ridden a minimum of 10 races to have made this week’s chart. The eligibility number will increase as the meeting continues.

After two weeks, Russell Baze has far out-distanced his competitors as the top jockey. His power rating of 299 means that those who have exclusively bet Baze will have made almost three times the money they have bet.

Other jockeys with high ratings are Danny Sorenson, 214; David Flores, 127; Alex Solis, 113, and Robbie Davis, 110.

Gary Stevens and Delahoussaye, both considered to be among the top jockeys in the country, have ratings of more than 90, which indicates each is having a very good meeting because most of their horses go to the post at low prices.

Another surprise is Corey Nakatani, who has ridden six winners in 48 starts. Nakatani has been getting good horses partly due to his apprentice jockey status. An apprentice jockey gets a weight allowance that experienced jockeys do not get.

JOCKEY POWER RATINGS THROUGH NOV. 26

WIN TOP 3 POWER JOCKEY STARTS WINS RATING RATING RATING Russell Baze 28 7 364 234 299 Danny Sorenson 12 2 279 149 214 David Flores 27 3 164 91 127 Alex Solis 60 11 128 99 113 Robbie Davis 54 10 127 94 110 Gary Stevens 64 11 95 97 96 Eddie Delahoussaye 67 13 93 90 91 Corey Nakatani 48 6 66 72 69 Ray Sibille 34 3 63 69 66 Laffit Pincay 57 7 63 65 64 Luis Ortega 11 0 0 119 59 Jesus Castanon 59 2 54 49 51 Chris McCarron 34 4 44 40 42 Gary Boulanger 52 2 15 48 31 Chris Davenport 17 1 27 33 30 Corey Black 45 1 06 41 23 Dave Patton 12 0 0 45 22 Martin Pedroza 34 0 0 43 21 Luis Jauregui 13 1 24 16 20 Rafael Meza 18 1 13 22 17 Fernando Toro 18 0 0 30 15 Amir Cedeno 10 0 0 0 0