Luis Contreras coming in to ride for Assman rest of the meet

[kingoftherapids]

santana/assman juggernaut has come to an end.

[jdelo77]

A fall out ? What happened ??

[heavylifting]

Who would have guessed that, at this date, Santa Anita (where Contreras has been riding) would have more canceled dates that Oaklawn?

[kingoftherapids]

Santana and his agent opted for a moquette horse on Monday over assman. The rest is history.

[husker71]

years ago it was Assmussen and Shaun Bridgemohan and lots of success all over.  Never thought that would end. 

[hogoffate]

I don't know the complete ins and outs of jockey agents, jockeys, and trainers.  It did surprise me when I saw Santana on a Moquette horse while Assman had a horse in the race.  But Santana did ride for Assman on Monday.  If he knew Santana was going to ride for Moquette, why didn't he take him off all his horses on Monday?  Why wait? Why would Santana sacrifice one race for Moquette to lose his first call status on most horses for Assman for the rest of the year at all tracks?  I'll be mildly surprised if they have parted ways for good.  They seem to have worked too well together to blow it up for one race.

[userpick]

I don't know the complete ins and outs of jockey agents, jockeys, and trainers.  It did surprise me when I saw Santana on a Moquette horse while Assman had a horse in the race.  But Santana did ride for Assman on Monday.  If he knew Santana was going to ride for Moquette, why didn't he take him off all his horses on Monday?  Why wait? Why would Santana sacrifice one race for Moquette to lose his first call status on most horses for Assman for the rest of the year at all tracks?  I'll be mildly surprised if they have parted ways for good.  They seem to have worked too well together to blow it up for one race.

I don't think it's one race, but this particular race was the final straw. It was a fairly big race with a horse that Asmussen really liked.I think Steve has been getting tired of Ricardo riding for Moquett and now even starting to ride quite a bit for Brad Cox. It's one thing to ride for a small barn every now and then, but Ricardo is riding for big barns where Asmussen has a horse in a race. As far as why Asmussen didn't take Ricardo off the rest of his mounts on Monday, you can't just take him off because the Southwest was Monday and no one knew Looking at Lee better than Ricardo. If you fire Ricardo and he doesn't ride that horse that day, then you piss off the owners, which Asmusssen doesn't want to do.

[hogoffate]

I can see what you are saying and thanks for the info.  I, too have noticed Santana on Cox and Diodoro horses through the meet when an Assman horse is in the race.  Santana rode the nightcap after the SW for Assman.
I understand not making the owners mad but would the owners really go nuts and pull the horse from him over the jockey?  Lots of owners will be mad at Assman if that's the case; but I would think that they would have the confidence that he could get plenty of capable jockeys to replace him.

[userpick]

I can see what you are saying and thanks for the info.  I, too have noticed Santana on Cox and Diodoro horses through the meet when an Assman horse is in the race.  Santana rode the nightcap after the SW for Assman.
I understand not making the owners mad but would the owners really go nuts and pull the horse from him over the jockey?  Lots of owners will be mad at Assman if that's the case; but I would think that they would have the confidence that he could get plenty of capable jockeys to replace him.

That's easier said than done. It would be much easier to just wait until after the day and tell him he's done. Breakups in racing last about a month. I bet we will see them back together before the end of the meet. Oaklawn jockey colony is the worst in the country, hence Asmussen having to fly someone across the country to ride first call for him. Its incredible how bad our jockeys are outside of one or two.

[mckinneyhog5]

I'm surprised this didn't happen sooner..it's more then just riding for other trainers that is causing this split. The guy I got the tip from the other day told me that after that race SA lost his darn and began looking for other options. He doesn't feel that Santana is giving full effort when riding for him.

[husker71]

used Eramia for a winner yesterday   there are lots of competent race riders out there I think    maybe not so many big race riders

[heavylifting]

FWIW, Asmussen has horses entered in 5 races on the big Saturday card at Fair Grounds. Santana has 4 mounts for him -- races 4, 5, 6 and 11, the last being the Risen Star, in which he rides Untrapped. The one race Santana's not riding for Asmussen is the 9th race, the Rachel Alexandra; Geroux rides Untapped (leave off the 'R' for Ricardo?), which he's been on in all 4 of her lifetime starts.

Maybe Asmussen is not entirely deep-6ing Santana, but keeping his options open, which appears to be what Santana has been doing.

[hogoffate]

I think your last statement says it all.  Both keeping their options open. For whatever reason(s). And that's fine too.  I would bet (pun not intended) Moquette and B. Cox are liking this situation.

[heavylifting]

Somewhere underlying all this, I've got to believe is Santana's exit strategy from Kentucky/Arkansas to New York/maybe Florida. Considering how well he did at Saratoga last summer with very little fanfare going in there, I suspect he wants to take a bigger bite out of that apple.

On the other hand, he could be that rare specimen that takes a page out of the Pat Day playbook, namely stays at his current haunts, opts for Saratoga during the late summer, but otherwise remains the big fish in the smaller pond. And, yes, I know that Pat rode Arlington regularly instead of the Spa, but it's not 1987 anymore.

Thoughts? Rumors?

[hogoffate]

It would be interesting to see how he could do against the NY colony on a daily basis.  He would have to win with some long shots to get some big name trainers to use him and even those have a first call rider already.

I would guess he stays in the Midwest.  Maybe a try at Gulfstream in December as a preview.

[heavylifting]

What's interesting is how things can turn on a dime.

Antonio Gallardo was on his way out to SoCal when Javier Castellano dumped his agent -- the first Mr. Julie Krone, the warmup pitcher, if you will, for Jay Hovdey -- last fall. Gallardo's agent at the time -- Mike Moran, a former jockey -- was literally halfway across the country, driving out on Rt. 80, when Gallardo called him to tell him that he wouldn't be going to SoCal anymore. He'd hooked up with Castellano's recently dumped agent and would be riding in New York.

You've got to take those chances when they come your way, because they might never come again. And in New York, at least during the turf season, they have full fields, which means that a halfway competent rider can get mounts, which isn't the case in a lot of other places, including Churchill. What's more, if you want to ride Churchill, you'd better be ready to do nighttime duty at Indiana Downs or risk losing mounts.

And in New York, the Johnny Vs, the Javiers, the Irads, they're out of town often enough that it's easy to pick up good mounts, even in stakes races, on those weekends when they go to Churchill, Pimlico, Delaware, Monmouth, Woodbine, etc.

Just take a look at the room in New York now -- Carmouche, Arroyo, Montanez -- all were tearing it up at Parx just a few short years ago. So they're not leading rider in New York, but they're in a much better place now. And I see where J.D. Acosta is riding the card at Aqueduct tomorrow. I think he's been splitting his time between Parx and Charles Town.

Yes, it can be done. Forget Horace Greeley; go east, young Ricardo.

[heavylifting]

Luis Contreras and Cipriano Contreras -- any relation?

I note that they teamed up to win Sunday's 5th race.