Baze Reaches Winner’s Circle That Is Select

As Russell Baze moved inexorably toward his 6,000th career win, the staff at Golden Gate Fields thought that the necessary preparations for the special day were well in hand. Sam Spear, director of media relations at the track north of San Francisco, ordered a commemorative blanket.

“The guy making the blanket told me he’d have it ready by [last] Monday,” Spear. “But then Russell got hot, and it looked like he might hit the 6,000 before the blanket got here. So to play it safe, I had a lettered placard ready by Thanksgiving. If need be, we could use the card in the winner’s circle instead of the blanket.”

The blanket man was true to his word, delivering on Monday. Then Baze was just as timely, riding Clover Hunter to victory in the fourth race Wednesday to join a club that has only 11 other members.

“It’s nice to join a select group like that,” Baze said. “I don’t really think about it that much. I think of myself as a guy who goes out there and does his job. I’ve just been really lucky. The numbers say I’m up there with a select group, but I’m not going to let that go to my head.”

Seven of the jockeys who have won 6,000 races--Laffit Pincay, David Gall, Pat Day, Jorge Velasquez, Chris McCarron, Sandy Hawley and Baze--are still active, although Velasquez has announced that he’ll retire at the end of the year. Pincay’s latest victory came Wednesday at Hollywood Park, where he rode One Tough Knight, a 40-1 shot, to victory in the feature race.

Of the 12 with 6,000, all but Gall, Larry Snyder, Carl Gambardella and Baze have been elected into the Racing Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. The four exclusions have won most of their races at minor tracks, something that’s fanned philosophical flames within the racing community. Some say their accomplishments speak for themselves; others, who don’t want them in the Hall of Fame, say that racing’s greatest honor shouldn’t be bestowed on jockeys who ride in the equivalent of a Triple-A League.

Baze, 39, does not bang his own drum and seems to be satisfied with the Special Eclipse Award that he received in 1995. Gall, Snyder and Gambardella have never won an Eclipse Award of any kind.

“That was the biggest deal, because it was so unexpected,” Baze said. “It was kind of a recognition from the industry for all the achievements.”

Baze, a native of Vancouver, British Columbia, whose father was a leading rider at Golden Gate in the 1960s, started riding in 1974. He rode less than 700 winners the first seven years. In 1981, he won his first of 16 riding titles at Golden Gate, and in the 1980s he totaled 2,639 wins. This decade, he’s been even hotter. He’s only 12 wins short of going over the 400 mark in 1997, which will be the sixth consecutive year he’s reached that plateau. No other jockey has won 400 races in a year more than three times. Baze will not, however, lead the country in wins for a sixth consecutive year; Maryland-based Edgar Prado won his 500th race for the year Sunday at Laurel Park.

“Right now,” Baze said, “I feel I could ride another 10 years, but in this business there are a lot of things that can happen to make you change the way you feel. I find it hard to comprehend 10 years with the same kind of luck I’ve had. I mean, the other shoe’s got to drop eventually.”

Baze rides regularly for Golden Gate’s leading trainer, Jerry Hollendorfer, who trained the jockey’s 4,000th winner, Frank Musso, in 1993, and saddled Clover Hunter for owner Sid Craig Wednesday. After a bad start, Clover Hunter won by 12 lengths, running a mile on a wet-fast track in 1:37 and paying $2.80 for $2.

“It was really ugly at the break,” Baze said. “He stumbled and I was afraid he was going to [hurt] himself. He felt like he wasn’t getting hold of the track, but after four or five jumps he picked himself up. At about the five-eighths, I thought that as long as he doesn’t choke on his tongue or something, we’re home.”

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6,000 Club

Jockeys who have reached 6,000 victories:

Bill Shoemaker: 8,833

Laffit Pincay: 8,567

David Gall: 7,184

Pat Day: 7,085

Angel Cordero: 7,057

Jorge Velasquez: 6,795

Chris McCarron: 6,548

Sandy Hawley: 6,442

Larry Snyder: 6,388

Carl Gambardella: 6,349

Johnny Longden: 6,032

Russell Baze 6,000