Unlike in the Rodgers and
Hammerstein lyrics, it is the month of July that has been busting out all over
for jockey Jermaine Bridgmohan this summer.
The 23-year-old Jamaican-born
rider reached the 500-win milestone last week, won the $125,000 Indiana Distaff
by a nose July 13 aboard Jean and Ted Barlas and Mike Porcaro’s Track N Jam and
completed the week with a neck win in the $100,000 Arlington Sprint last
Saturday.
“Last week was a good week,”
said Bridgmohan Thursday morning in the Arlington
jockeys’ room. “Hopefully, those two wins I had Saturday will help my
agent Jon Suwanski and me drum up some more business. We’ll just continue
to do what we’re doing – to try hard – and hope all that gets us closer to
where we want to be.”
The younger Bridgmohan was
leading rider during the Tropical-at-Calder meeting during 2006, and has won
the Grade II Carry Back Stakes at Calder and the Grade II Davona Dale and Grade
III Mr. Prospector Stakes at Gulfstream during his young career.
However, when Bridgmohan won
the Arlington Sprint aboard Silverton Hill’s Havelock,
the horse who finished second a neck back was Richard, Bertram and Elaine
Klein’s Country Day, ridden by older brother Shaun Bridgmohan, and the younger
Bridgmohan was able to reflect on the nature of their professional relationship
some days later.
“Shaun is nine years older
than me,” Jermaine said of his brother, who was Arlington’s
leading rider for the 2005 racing season. “So really, we’re from two different
generations. He started riding in 1998 when he was 18, so I would have
been nine years old at the time. I remember going to Calder to watch him
ride when he first started out, because the whole family lives in Ft.
Lauderdale now.
“But I didn’t start riding
until 2006, and he had left the South Florida circuit years earlier, so we
really haven’t ridden against each other that much,” Bridgmohan
said. “We both went to Saratoga
last summer, but I got kicked by a horse early in the meeting so I really
didn’t ride that much. In fact, we may not have ridden in the same race
together more than a half dozen times.
“We had the same valet when we
both rode at Fair Grounds for awhile so our lockers were right next to each
other and we probably got to talk more than usual,” Bridgmohan said, “but when
we were both riding in South Florida, and when we were together here the other
day, we had different valets and were in different parts of the room.
“Riding is something you have
to learn on your own,” said Bridgmohan, “so I can’t really say he (Shaun)
taught me how to ride. Naturally, you learn to follow the people you
admire, but if there is anyone who follows both of us, it is our father
Gerald. He always wanted to be a jockey back in Jamaica
at Caymanas Park,
but his mother wouldn’t let him. So he watches both of us in every race
we ride every day. We know he’s watching and we hear about it when we do
something wrong, but also when we do something right.
“As for the win the other day,
I didn’t get any special feeling about beating my brother,” Bridgmohan said.
“I was just excited about winning the race.”
REMINDER: FRIDAY IS ‘BLACKHAWKS LEGENDS DAY’ AT ARLINGTON
Friday is “Blackhawks Legends
Day” at Arlington
Park, and Chicago
Blackhawks legends Denis Savard and Eddie Olczyk will be on hand to sign
autographs in the paddock from 4 to 6 p.m.
Arlington
guests and Blackhawks fans are reminded to bring their Blackhawks memorabilia
to get it signed by the local legends.
SUNDAY DOUBLES FOR RIGGS, PEREZ, SANTANA AND DIVITO
Arlington Park
jockeys Tanner Riggs, Eddie Perez and J. Z. Santana all celebrated riding
doubles Sunday at Arlington,
as did trainer Jimmy DiVito.
Riggs won the fifth on Lakota
Stable’s Ruler of the Court for trainer Dee Poulos and the eighth on Robert
Zoellner’s Soonerette for Donnie K. Von Hemel.
Perez won the second on Peter
Karahalios’ Quick Delivery for Dale Bennett and the sixth on Louie Roussel III
and Ronnie Lamarque’s Hero’s and Crooks for conditioner Roussel.
Santana won the fourth on
Wildcat Thoroughbred’s Retail Reger for Tammy Domenosky and the seventh on B
Jock LLC’s Tellme All About it for Jimmy DiVito, who also saddled Lee Battaglia
and James DiVito’s Seeking the Coach to win the third with jockey Diego Sanchez
up.
Jockeys Corey Nakatani and
Jesus Castanon have switched their tacks to Saratoga
for the upstate New York
meeting which begins Friday.