I remember in the early 90's Solis went on a losing streak that was monumental. It's the only time that I really would throw a horse out because of the jockey. We were all waiting for him to win one before we ever bet him again.
Wow - bad enough to still be out on the web. Sorry, it was the late 80's:
In Saturday's Silver Screen Handicap, Hollywood Park has the hot horse and the cold jockey.
The horse is Snow Chief, winner of the Preakness, the Florida, Santa Anita and Jersey derbies, the leading 3-year-old in the country and the earner of almost twice as much money ($1.7 million) as any other horse this year.
Snow Chief's jockey is Alex Solis, still among the top 10 on the Daily Racing Form's national money list with $3.6 million in purses but a rider who has all but dropped out of sight in the Hollywood Park jockey standings.
When Solis failed to win with six mounts Thursday, his losing streak at Hollywood Park reached 62 races. Earlier in the season, Solis went more than three weeks, and 59 races, without a win locally. Solis is winning with only 7% of his mounts, well below the 14% he had last year and the 11% he registered at Santa Anita, where he finished sixth in the standings with 44 wins.Snow Chief, who'll be an odds-on favorite against a possible 12 other 3-year-olds in the $400,000 Silver Screen, must look like a desert oasis to Solis, who hasn't won a stake at Hollywood all season. Another horse Solis can't wait to board is Dahar, who gave the 22-year-old Panamanian two major wins at Santa Anita. Dahar will be favored today in the $250,000 Sunset Handicap as Hollywood launches the Independence Day weekend.
Neither Carl Grinstead, the co-owner of Snow Chief with Ben Rochelle, nor Mel Stute, the trainer of the near-black California-bred colt, feels that Solis' slump will compromise their horse's chances Saturday. Stute, a three-time Hollywood training champion whose stable has also been struggling this summer, even takes the blame for some of Solis' problems.
"Because of me (with Snow Chief and the filly Sari's Heroine), Alex has gone out of town a lot to ride," Stute said. "When a jockey does that, his business back home is bound to suffer. It even affected Chris McCarron to a certain extent when he took a lot of mounts in out-of-town stakes. I don't think there's anything wrong with the way Alex is riding."
McCarron, however, has come back strong and is in the thick of the battle, with Laffit Pincay and Gary Stevens, for the Hollywood riding title. Solis continues to struggle.
One race Solis couldn't make this season was the Hollywood Invitational, run the same day that he rode Snow Chief to his $600,000 win in the Jersey Derby at Garden State Park. Dahar, with Bill Shoemaker riding, finished second by a neck to Flying Pidgeon, Shoemaker conceding that his horse would have been best with a better trip. Trainer Charlie Whittingham has given back the mount on Dahar to Solis in today's Sunset, which will also include Flying Pidgeon.
Although the low win total doesn't reflect it, Solis does not feel that he is riding poorly.
"I have had slumps before," Solis said. "I just haven't been riding the right horses and I'm sure things will come around. I've missed some good horses back here because of going to places like Kentucky, New Jersey and Maryland to ride."
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-07-04/ ... snow-chiefAmerica must have the highest "goofs per capita" rating of any nation outside Antarctica.
