During the first seven racing days at Belmont’s Fall Meet Ramon Dominguez has been finishing in the money at a titanic 67 percent clip. After 52 starts he is in a familiar position: tied with John Velazquez with 11 wins out of 67 total races. In a memorable stretch of nine races in which he had mounts on Wednesday into Thursday, Dominguez won or placed second in 8 straight and finished third aboard an 18/1 shot in the other race.

Dominguez appears to have a slight case of seconditis, placing 19 times out of the 52 starts. On the other hand, out of 67 races so far, Ramon has been involved in a whopping 30 exactas and over half the trifectas. To be fair, he gets a leg up on his share of favorites but the Fall Meet is not exactly the inner dirt at Aqueduct.

Between 1/1 and 4/25 of this year, Dominguez won on over 30 percent of his mounts at the Qzone Park oval. In contrast, the racing at Belmont right now includes a bevy of top riders, trainers and horses. In addition to John Velazquez other jockeys who are poised to make a run at the title include Cornelio Velasquez (8 wins), Rajiv Maragh (7 wins) Alan Garcia (6 wins), and Javier Castellano (6 wins) among others.

To this point Dominguez is also leading the earnings parade after capturing the feature GI Garden City on Check the Label on Saturday and the G3 The Nobel Damsel aboard Strike The Bell on Sunday. He completed the late double on both of those cards with returns of $10.00 on Saturday and 49.60 on Sunday.

Dominguez wins by a nose aboard the favorite Academy Run in the 10th at Belmont on Saturday 9/18/10 photo courtesy of NYRA

Earlier this year Dominguez surpassed the 4,000-win plateau since immigrating to the US from his native Venezuela in 1996. He is a one heck of a rider in the prime of his career, but a small knock would be that he has yet to capture a Triple Crown race and only one Breeders’ Cup win out of 20 mounts. In 2009, he ranked third on the national earnings list for jockeys and he is well on the way for a high rank this year.  Look for him to capture the Fall Meet title when he elects to stay in New York and the competition points to Keeneland and Churchill.

Sunday’s parade of favorites led to one of the lower pick six payouts in recent memory: $210.50 for six correct and $8.80 for five out of six. “Pick the Pros and Ponies” is a handicapping/football contest at Belmont Park that is a popular addition to a Sunday trip to the track during the Fall meet. In a language related connection between  football and racing, we’re been noticing the repeated usage of the term “Pick Six” in football commentary.  An interception in a football game is often referred to as  a “pick” by broadcasters and fans.  An interception that is returned for a touchdown (six points)  is now being commonly referred to as a “pick six”.

If you are out to Belmont this Fall you can stop by the one of NYRA stores to pick off a copy of “Off to a Flying Start: Horsing Around the Language”.

We received finished books from our Printer (Fry Communications) on Friday, May 22nd and since then we’ve been off to the races.