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Russell Baze smiles after receiving an award for breaking the all-time wins record for a jockey.

updated 9:19 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2006

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Russell Baze fell off a horse when he was a teenager and his father thought he didn’t have a future riding the animals.

Good thing Baze didn’t listen to dear old Dad.

Baze became thoroughbred racing’s winningest jockey Friday when he broke Laffit Pincay Jr.’s record with a victory aboard Butterfly Belle at Bay Meadows, with his father, Joe, looking on.

Win No. 9,531 came in the fourth race, when the 48-year-old Baze found a hole along the rail and drove through it. He whipped the filly right-handed down the stretch to win on the Longden turf course, named for Johnny Longden, who once held the record Baze broke.

“When I got started galloping horses, it was so thrilling and challenging,” said Baze, already in racing’s Hall of Fame. “From the start, I knew this is what I wanted to do. I was just praying I wouldn’t outgrow the profession.”

He didn’t.

At 5-foot-4 and 115 pounds, Baze possesses the ideal physique for a jockey charged with handling high-strung 1,100-pound thoroughbreds.

He needed every ounce of muscle aboard Butterfly Belle, who was crowded and forced to check out of the starting gate. She went two-wide into the stretch and was stuck behind a wall of horses.

“I was looking for a way out,” Baze said. “When (the hole) started developing, I immediately headed for it. I was just glad it stayed open until I could get through it.”

The inquiry sign was posted after the race, but it didn’t involve Baze’s filly. The infield display board flashed “Congratulations Russell Baze” as he steered Butterfly Belle into the winner’s circle.

Crossing the finish line, Baze said he felt “elation that I had won the race and become the winningest rider, and relief that now it’s over. Everybody can go home.”

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“I’m not going to do much celebrating,” he said. “I’m going to do a lot of relaxing.”

But not before he completed his riding commitments. He finished fourth, third, fifth, eighth, fourth and fourth in his six other mounts.

Pincay had owned the mark since Dec. 10, 1999, when he took it from Bill Shoemaker. Pincay, 59, was on hand for his fifth day of watching Baze, who had won one race each of the previous two days. Baze tied the record of 9,530 Thursday.

Shoemaker had been the king for 29 years after surpassing Longden.

“Who would’ve thought 32 years ago a skinny little kid with no experience would be standing here today,” Baze told the sparse crowd as he stood in the winner’s circle. “I could hardly believe this would happen.”

Baze’s mounts were heavily bet down from their morning-line odds by fans seeking souvenir $2 win tickets, including Butterfly Belle, who went from early 6-1 odds to being the 9-5 favorite.

Pincay said he bet on every horse except Baze’s in the historic race.

“I was trying to jinx them,” he said.

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