“You’re going to do well here, bud.”
“Thank you.”
“Great job, Chris, I’ve got a horse with Sciacca I want you to ride…”
“OK. Sounds good.”
“Chris, that was very skillful. You might want to stick around brother, I mean it. You’ve got a lot of talent.”
“Thank you. I’m going to be here all summer.”
“Chris. I’ve been watching for you so long, you’ve made me a ton of money.”
“Thank you. Thank you.”
Chris Landeros weaved his way from the winner’s circle to the jocks’ room as deftly as he weaved Originator through the last furlong to win Saturday’s fifth race. In between the plaudits, the 31-year-old jockey thanked and told his mother-in-law, Tracey Wilkes, he’d be home for dinner, hugged his old friend Joey Migliore and fielded questions quicker than Ozzie Smith fielded groundballs.
Last year at Saratoga, Landeros won the Birdstone Stakes on Big Dollar Bill for Wilkes. That was sweet. But this one, an allowance race on opening weekend, again for Wilkes, had more depth. Here for his first full-time tilt at Saratoga, Landeros needs to show he’s here to stay.
“When I won the stake last summer, galloping out, that was pretty special,” Landeros said. “Today, I just feel like this is my job. I need to prove it, this is my time, I’ve got to prove it.”
So far, so good.
Rained out of a few choice rides early, Landeros has earned a win, a second and two thirds from nine rides at Saratoga so far.
The California native rides three Friday and is named on eight, including Mrs. Ramona G. in the Caress, Champagne Anyone in the Coaching Club American Oaks and the talented Borracho in an allowance race Saturday. Landeros rides for seven trainers Saturday.
Landeros and his new agent, Joey’s father and former jockey Richard Migliore, have been working the barns like the NYRA cleanup crew works the late shift, breezing horses, hustling mounts and trying to hammer a spike into the most indelible space, the New York jocks’ room.
Son of former trainer, Manuel Landeros, who gallops horses for Wilkes, Landeros won his first race at Turf Paradise in 2006, plied his trade in Northern California, Texas, the Midwest and eventually dropped his tack bag in Kentucky. He won 31 races at Gulfstream Park this winter and picked up his first rides in the Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks this year.
“I’m building up on it for my future,” Landeros said. “We can get to the next stage, the winter pushed me to that level, we’ve got to just build up on it now. If I don’t follow it, I’m not going to be there, I’ve got to do it and I truly believe we can do it.”
Landeros was thinking about a move to Saratoga for a while. A call from Migliore in May clinched it.
“I’ve heard some buzz about you trying Saratoga,” Migliore said. “If you do and if your agent doesn’t come with you, I know a lot of people here, I know the lay of the land, I have a lot of confidence in your ability. I’ve never really thought about being a jockey’s agent but I would try it with you.”
“I’m thinking about it, I’m thinking about it,” Landeros said.
By summer, thinking had become planning.
Migliore liked Landeros from the start, when the journeyman was winding down his career and the youngster was revving his up in California.
“Riders know the guys who can ride, just because a guy’s not winning doesn’t mean they can’t ride, it just means they’re not getting the opportunities,” Migliore said. “I’ve been really pleased with the reception we’ve gotten. He won right away, he contributed a ride that showed he belongs at this level. My fervent hope, wish, desire is that he rides some winners but more than anything I hope he comes out of this meet and people realize he belongs in the upper echelon of riders.”
But haven’t we been here before? Watching a young jockey trying to make it big at Saratoga. Some have stuck. Some have drifted away, back to Ellis Park at best, God knows where, at worst.
Migliore will book rides for Landeros but he’ll also be his coach, trying to teach the kid to appreciate what he has, to give it all he’s got.
“There will be a day when it will be your last ride, you will never do that again. Hopefully it’s after another 20 years and you make the decision. Jerry Bailey got to do that, Chris McCarron got to do that, but most people don’t make that choice,” said Migliore, forced out with a neck injury in 2010. “Do you want to look back and say, ‘I could have done better. I could have done more.’ Or do you want to feel satisfied whenever it ends?”
Landeros will do his part.
“I was born and bred on the backside so coming to Saratoga is a big deal,” Landeros said. “I’m going to let Mig do his work, I’m going to do what I’m told and ride hard every chance I get.”
