Baze Rides 10,000th Winner

Russell Baze loves working sudoku puzzles in between races. The jockey with a mind for numbers hit his biggest one yet.

Baze extended his dominance as North America's winningest thoroughbred rider, surviving a photo finish in a three-horse duel to the wire for his 10,000th victory Friday at Golden Gate Fields.

Then he went out and bagged two more winners, closing his day at 10,002.

''It's a very significant number,'' he said. ''It's something I'm going to look back on when I retire and say, 'Wow, it was a pretty darn special thing to be able to accomplish.'''

Retirement seems far off for the 49-year-old jockey. Baze wants to continue riding as long as his health and desire remain strong. He calculates it could take him another 2½ to 3 years to reach 11,000.

He summed up his 34-year career in, what else, numbers.

''If you had each of these races on a video and assuming the average is about a minute and 20 seconds, that's like 13,333 minutes of races to watch,'' he said, grinning. ''It's like eight days worth of solid races.''

What the videos wouldn't show is the effort Baze puts into a typical day. He rises early, goes to the track to exercise horses he'll ride later, hits the track's steam box to drop a few pounds, takes a nap and rides all day.

Then he does it again. He also runs and works on his upper-body strength. He eats whatever he wants on Sunday nights and Mondays (usually his one day off a week), then he says, ''It's time to start thinking about the scales again.''

Much of Baze's success is the result of staying healthy and not battling weight for much of a career that has been spent in the San Francisco Bay area, where he has won a combined 70 riding titles at Golden Gate Fields and Bay Meadows.

In the same riding style he used to pass Laffit Pincay Jr. and become North America's career leader in December 2006, Baze drove Two Step Cat along the rail to a nose victory.

''Wow! I got a seriously good nod there,'' he said, having replaced his riding helmet with a black baseball cap with '10,000' in white numbers.

Baze hit double-digits in winners with his 44,006th career starter. His mounts have earned nearly $153 million.

''Can you believe they actually pay me to do this?'' he told fans who pushed posters and slips of paper at him for autographs.

Baze was third most of the way before moving Two Step Cat between horses in the stretch to take up position along the rail. His mount battled Brite Oakie and Unusual Men to a blanket finish.

A mere nose separated the trio, with the official results photo showing Two Step Cat's flared nostril barely in front.

After a few tense minutes, Two Step Cat's number flashed on the tote board in the '1' position. Fans gathered around the winner's circle cheered.

''When I passed Laffit it was kind of a spectacular race, weaving through the pack and getting through on the inside,'' Baze said. ''This one was a little more exciting.''

The race was for cheap claiming horses, ones who aren't good enough to run in big-money stakes races. Baze has made a career of coaxing such horses across the finish line first.

''He tries so hard,'' winning trainer Armando Lage said. ''He'll ride the $4,000 claimer as good as he'll ride the stakes horse. He just wants to win races.''

Two Step Cat paid $4.80, $3 and $2.20 as the 6-5 wagering favorite.

''I got to ride tomorrow, so there's not going to be a whole lot of celebrating,'' Baze said.

Baze rode 399 winners last year to lead the nation for the ninth time. His win rate of 32.9 percent was the best of his career.

But his superiority is currently confined to North America.

A challenger unknown to Baze before 2006 has emerged in Brazilian jockey Jorge Ricardo. He passed Baze on the career victory list last February and hit 10,000 on Jan. 9. Ricardo had won 10,041 races through Thursday.

Eager to increase the distance between him and Baze, Ricardo moved from Brazil to Argentina, where he races at three tracks that offer up to 14 races daily.

Baze typically rides eight or nine races daily at Golden Gate or Bay Meadows. That adds up to about 1,200 races a year. In 2007, Ricardo rode in nearly 1,000 more races than Baze.

''If he's willing to ride over 2,000 races a year, he can have it. I'm just not willing to work that hard, and I really don't have the opportunity to ride that many races a year,'' Baze said. ''I'm kind of in awe of anybody that can physically do that. It'll be interesting to me how long he can keep it up.''

Other than chasing Ricardo, Baze doesn't have any more big records in mind to break.

''I'm going to take every day just like I do,'' he said. ''Go out and ride the best I can and hope for a winner.''