Mike Brunker Horse racing editor • Profile • E-mail

Where does Russell Baze rank among the greatest American jockeys of all time — household names like Willie Shoemaker, Eddie Arcaro, Jerry Bailey and the man he has surpassed for all-time wins, Laffit Pincay Jr.?

There is plenty of room for argument on the strengths and weaknesses of these riders and many others. And the answer could vary considerably depending on how you define “greatest” — most riding titles, most victories in big races or sheer brilliance in the saddle?

But I have two words for anyone who seriously believes that the 48-year-old Baze doesn’t belong in that lofty league simply because he recorded the vast majority of his victories at smaller racetracks: Get real!

No, Baze hasn’t won the Kentucky Derby or any Breeders’ Cup races that many racing fans apparently consider the best way to measure greatness.

But becoming the winningest rider in horse racing’s long history is an amazing achievement, no matter where it was achieved. Given the dangerous nature of the work, it is every bit the equal of Cal Ripkin’s iron man record in baseball or Brett Favre’s streak of consecutive starts with the Packers.

Pincay, who surpassed the late Shoemaker’s record of 8,833 victories in 1999, said as much last week in a teleconference with racing writers.

“I would have been very proud whether I would have won the title in Panama or riding camels over there in Iraq,” he said.

For his part, Baze said that while he had success during the three years he rode in Southern California beginning in 1988 — where he was part of a deep jockey colony that included Pincay, Gary Stevens, Chris McCarron and Eddie Delahoussaye, among others — he ultimately decided that “I could do better here in Northern California.”

A devoted family man, he said the return to the Bay Area also made sense because he and his wife, Tami, were able to raise their four children “where they could go to school in one place year-round.”

Pincay hit paydirt in another interview last week by noting that riding cheap claiming horses at Northern California’s second-tier racetracks like Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows and the fair circuit is in many ways just as challenging as piloting top-flight racing stock in million-dollar races. It doesn’t carry the same sort of pressure that goes with big races, he said, but it requires a different kind of mental toughness to prepare the same way for a $4,000 claiming race as you would for a stakes.

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That touched on the most crucial ingredients behind Baze’s ride into the record books: A positive attitude and a work ethic that is second to none.

Baze has always been known as a rider who never quits on a horse, whether he’s riding in a stakes race or trying to save third aboard a cheap claimer. And even as he takes ownership of racing’s most-hallowed riding record, he continues to exercise horses in the mornings six days a week, a practice that many jockeys abandon once they make it to the top.

Obviously it takes more than hard work to dominate a racing circuit to the extent that Baze has in Northern California, where he has won 65 riding titles at Bay Meadows and Golden Gate alone.

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