JAMES GRAHAM ON TOP IN JOCKEYS’ RACE AFTER SUNDAY DOUBLE

 

By Graham Ross of Arlington Park

With 17 racing days left in Arlington Park’s 2011 racing season which closes on Sept. 25, jockey James Graham has assumed a one-win advantage in Arlington’s leading rider standings following his riding double Sunday.

The Irish-born reinsman, 32, has never won a riding title in the United States – either at his summer base at Arlington or at his winter headquarters at Fair Grounds in New Orleans – but he has been runner-up in the standings at both tracks several times.

Graham’s Sunday double began in the opener when he rode Mr. and Mrs. A. C. Asbury’s Gleam of Hope to victory for trainer Mike Stidham. He then came back to the winner’s circle after the sixth aboard Tom Basler, Edward Perniciaro Jr. and Elizabeth Perniciaro’s first time starter Heated Debate, trained by John Cox, who was marking his own first winner at Arlington this season.

Jockey J. Z. Santana, who has led the Arlington standings most of the current season, was the first rider to reach 60 wins at the local session this summer, but Graham’s Sunday double moved him to the front with 61 wins prior to Thursday’s races.

Also entering Thursday’s racing program, Graham is Arlington’s leading money-winning rider this season with $1,409,299 in purse earnings, while Santana is clearly second best at $1,349,532. The two other jockeys with over $1 million in purse earnings are Eddie Perez with $1,024,110 and 52 wins, and Junior Alvarado with $1,016,183 and 51 wins.

Alvarado, Arlington’s riding champion two years ago and runner-up last year, missed five weeks of activity this summer after suffering a broken collarbone.