ARCADIA — Fans who stayed to the end of the Santa Anita Handicap card Sunday sat in on a master class in the art of riding front-running racehorses.
It was taught, not surprisingly, by jockey Edwin Maldonado.
In the 10th race, the $200,000 Grade II Buena Vista Stakes, the 41-year-old Maldonado teamed up with the 4-year-old filly Ruby Nell to score a popular, three-quarter-length victory after leading for practically the entire one-mile circuit of the turf course.
“It meant a lot,” said Maldonado, who had been injured and missed Ruby Nell’s previous race – a loss – and appreciated trainer Richard Mandella reuniting him with a horse he’d guided to several front-running wins in 2023.
Maldonado makes winning on the lead look easy, but only C students would think it really is.
“She’s a filly that can get tough,” Maldonado said a couple of days after Ruby Nell’s win. “Some horses, you take a good hold (of the reins) and they’ll relax for you. You take a strong hold on her, and she’ll go faster. My job is to try to take a hold without fighting her (and) taking too much away from her high cruising speed.
“The first quarter (of a mile), I just give her her head and let my rein dangle,” he said, talking you through the Buena Vista. “I take a light hold until she starts getting more aggressive, and then I gradually take a stronger hold without choking her. I just want to let her be.
Mandella summed it up: “That ride looked like what Edwin does.”
Edwin does it better than anybody else at Santa Anita.
When I resumed writing about horse racing last month after more than a decade, I had to catch up on the strengths and weaknesses of Southern California jockeys. So I’ve been tallying riders’ wins in main-track and turf-course sprints and routes, in stakes, in photo finishes, on the lead and from off the pace and aboard longshots, as well as their failures aboard favorites.
One thing that jumped out is Maldonado’s proclivity for front-runners. By my count, of his 12 wins at this Santa Anita meet, 11 have come while leading at every quarter-mile call; no other local jockey comes close to that rate.
The recent numbers only confirm the reputation Maldonado has ridden around with for years, since the Ohio native, raised in Puerto Rico, came to California from Texas and Louisiana in 2010 and enjoyed success “sending” long-shot horses on Fairplex Park’s speed-friendly five-eighths-mile oval.
He used to chafe at being called a “speed” rider. He didn’t want to be seen as one-dimensional.
But a jockey complaining about being called clever with front-runners is like a basketball player resisting being rated a great 3-point shooter. It’s a time-honored, valued skill.
Bill Shoemaker’s greatest ride, in his own estimation, was a front-running win aboard Olden Times in the 1962 San Juan Capistrano Handicap. Johnny Longden bragged that his aggressiveness changed how races in California were ridden. Patrick Valenzuela’s speed-rider rep didn’t slow him down (off-the-track trouble did).
“It kind of grew on me,” Maldonado said of the front-runner label. “I got very good at it, at having horses on the lead.
“A lot of jockeys are afraid of sending a horse out of the gate, because after (that) your job is to get that horse to settle and relax. A lot of jockeys go too fast, and even going too slow can hurt you (because) you give the closers a chance to catch you.
“I’m never afraid. I believe in my abilities.”
Embracing his reputation probably has helped his business. A trainer with a front-running horse will, or should, always consider employing Maldonado. Most of his best mounts have had speedball instincts: Defunded, Ceiling Crusher, Merneith, Distinictiv Passion, Ruby Nell.
Maldonado, whose agent is the veteran Tony Matos, has seen his rides, wins, percentage and earnings all increase for three straight years. At Santa Anita, he’s winning at a solid 19% clip.
He credits his improvement to better discipline and positive thinking. He recommends the self-help books “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrne, and “Becoming Supernatural,” by Joe Dispenza. Maybe Maldonado should write his own book about how to get ahead and stay there.
Lessons in riding front-runners aren’t easily applied by us non-jockeys, but knowledge of one jockey’s knack for exploiting early speed can be useful to handicappers.
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In the third race at Santa Anita on Friday, Maldonado rides a 3-year-old colt named Beer Money for trainer Doug O’Neill in a turf sprint at the starter optional-claiming level. Beer Money’s only win and closest second came in November and December, the last two times Maldonado rode him, sending him to the early lead both times.
Could Beer Money, 3-1 third choice on the morning line, be a poor man’s Ruby Nell in his reunion with Maldonado? The A student’s answer is to go to the betting window.
Follow Kevin Modesti on Twitter (formerly X) @Kevin Modesti.