Ramon Dominguez wins record six races at Belmont Park
“A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals”.
Such a quote can be applied to Ramon Dominguez, after he achieved an astounding honour that was held only by Jorge Velasquez, who got hold of his six for six wins on June 9, 1981. Now, the 106-year history of Belmont witnessed this for the second time.
John Velazquez is the only rider to have made his mark on the Saratoga Ground by winning six races. He went for six for ten on September 3, 2001.
June 5 2011, was a very auspicious day for the Eclipse award winning jockey, who got hold of his six wins in a single day at Belmont Park.
The New York Racing Association Circuit witnessed the winning of six races on a single race card for the sixteenth time. This is the first time such a notable victory happened in ten years.
Dominguez had won six races on eight mounts. Exhilarated with his victories and happy at getting the honour, which was only held by Jorge Velazquez, he said “It feels great to have your name next to somebody like that”.
Ramon Dominguez was able to get hold of this feat in the 6th race, of the $75,000, NYSS Spectacular Bid Division for 3-year-olds, when his proficient hands rode Darrin’s Dilemma to post fractions of 23 seconds and 46 seconds.
Dominguez was then able to guide the three year old colt to take command in the upper stretch and thus he was able to defeat the pace setter, Bold Deed.
The overjoyed jockey said, “I think the key factor today with him is how well he relaxed. He can be very quick and he's coming off these real short distance races and I was afraid that he would be too keyed up, but he relaxed so nicely and that really helped
him”.
Call it luck or some charm but Dominguez began his day by getting hold of the victory in the first race. He was aboard Saginaw, who was considered as a favourite in that race. His second mount was of Bellamy Star, who won race five.
Dominguez got hold of his fifth win in race seven while he was aboard Show Trial, who claimed the one mile claiming race by 1 ¾ lengths. The sixth win came in the ninth race.
He was aboard Hessonite in the $75,000 NYSS Cupecoy’s Joy. This was his final mount of the day and as exhausted as he might be he guided the fifth place runner, Hessonite, to finish at the wire by 3 ¾ lengths ahead of Lady On the Run.
A glance at his jockey profile reveals that he started his racing career as a sixteen year old by show jumping in his native Venezuela and soon he advanced to flat racing. In 1996 he immigrated to the United States and started jockeyship at Florida’s Hialeah
Park Race Track. The year 2001 gave the jockey his big break, as he became the jockey with the most wins. He was also given the Isaac Murphy Award for attaining the highest wins in America.
Dominguez was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on November 24, 1976. He regularly holds the reins for Gio Ponti, who is sired by Tale of the Cat.
The 34-year old Dominguez, nearly missed his seventh win as he got beat by Friend or Foe. Had he won that race as well, he would have been the first rider to win seven races in a single day.
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