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Velazquez back on familiar turf

Aug 13th, 08
John Velazquez fell from grace in the 2007 Saratoga meet, both literally and in the jockey standings. He was thrown from horses five times in the first 16 days last summer, during a spate of gate mishaps that eventually led to a change in starters.

Life didn't get much better for Velazquez when he stayed on his mounts. He staggered to a sixth-place finish with 22 victories, quite a slip for a three-time Spa riding champion who holds the track record with a staggering 65 wins in 2004.

"Last year was a throw out year," Velazquez said. "You had to learn from it and move on to a different thing."

Armed with a new strategy, Velazquez is back in his familiar place atop the standings, tied with Cornelio Velasquez with 19 wins at the midway point. Velazquez has only three fewer victories than all last summer, although he has gone winless the past two days.

Velazquez said he'd become too reliant on trainer Todd Pletcher and paid for it when Pletcher also had an off-meet (by his standards) with 13 winners in 2007.

"If it goes bad for the stable, it goes bad for me, and it reflects on both of us," Velazquez said. "And maybe more on me because I was concentrating more on one stable than any other."

Velazquez, 36, remains Pletcher's first-call rider, and the duo have combined for nine victories so far.

ButVelazquez also has been aboard winners for Nick Zito, Bobby Frankel, Shug McGaughey, Bob Baffert and Eoin Harty. He guided Commentator to victory in the Whitney and Baffert's Indian Blessing to first in the Test.

"This year, I've tried to spred it out a little more and not put all my eggs in one basket," he said.

Pletcher said he had no problem with Velazquez branching out.

"He's basically done what he should be doing all along," Pletcher said. "Before, he could rely on me for all his wins. Now he's trying to pick up some other business, too."

Pletcher said it's not hard to explain Velazquez's improvement from last year.

"The horses, man," he said. "The horses make the difference for him, me, everybody else. That's the bottom line."

Velazquez has been riding so well, he had mixed feelings about leaving the Spa last Saturday to ride at Arlington Park on the Arlington Million card.

His horses finished off the board in the Secretariat and the Beverly D. The horse Velazquez was supposed to ride in the Arlington Million, Sudan, was scratched because of a tendon injury.

Velasquez was well-aware that missing one day of business could cost him the Saratoga title.

"As soon as you start moving out one or two days, you lose that business and a possible winner or two," he said. "Every winner counts. But we chose to do that and we'll see what happens. By the end of the meet, if we end up on top, that's great, and if we don't, at least we tried our best."

Velazquez last won the title in 2004 and then surrendered to Edgar Prado the next two years.

Cornelio Velasquez took the crown last year with 44 winners and is making a strong bid to repeat.

But Velazquez, a native of Puerto Rico, is making it look like old times.

"Definitely, if you want to win one of the titles in New York, it would Saratoga," Velazquez said. "It's special for everybody. This is one of the places we'll always try to do the best we can." Mark Singelais/Albany, NY Times Union

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