9/9/2022

The Power Rankings are meant to be fun and to focus on the human competition between these awesome athletes. Moreover it’s a chance to focus more on each rider and their accomplishments each week. We stress there is nothing “official” about these rankings and we know there will be varying opinions which is also great and we hope it does create more conversations about our sport and our athletes.

In our 17th Jockey Power Rankings 11 different riders got to the Winner’s Circle. The sprint is on to the finish line of the 2022 season. Normally we give a little re-cap of each rider on their week but this is a special edition of the Power Rankings so there is only one re-cap we are doing in honor of the oldest jockey to ever win a race in Washington State Racing history and we are honoring Connie Doll with our prestigious Honorary #1 ranking in this the17th edition of the Emerald Jockey Power Rankings:

#1 Connie Doll Honorary Status

Connie Doll is a living legend among us and represents the best of folks in the racing business. She works hard, is tougher than nails, dependable and talk about a grinder. Doll is 63 and she won a race last week to break her own record of the oldest jockey both male and female, to win a race in Washington State. She has to be in the top 10 if not the top 4 or 5 in the country of oldest female jockey to win a race. We tried to find out how she fared nationwide and all we could find was Diane King in 2013 won a race at Thistledowns at the age of 67. The story was in the Paulick report and so we reached to the Paulick folks and tghey said they aren’t sure how Doll’s win would rank as there is no clearing house of stats such as that in horse racing. It is safe to say though that Doll’s win at 63 is an extremely rare accomplishment.

Doll’s historic ride was on Midnight Luter last Friday who went off as the 8-5 betting favorite and Doll with Luter took a 2 length lead at the top of the stretch and held that advantage for the win. Lucky K Racing were the owners of Midnight Luter and Rosie Simkins trained.

The other interesting stat with Doll’s accomplishment’s is that she never fooled the bettors. Last Friday Midnight Luter was the betting favorite at 8-5. Her win in 2021 on Discreet Demons for trainer Roddina Barrett was the 5-2 betting choice. She didn’t have a win in 2020 but in 2019 she won 3 times at Sun Downs and was 3-1, 7-2 and 4-5. And in 2018 she had 5 wins at 1-1, 4-5, 3-2, 3-1 and 4-1. The last time Doll had a winner that paid $10.00 or more was April 2, 2018.

Doll began riding in 1979 and rode all around the Northwest including at the bigger tracks Longacres, Yakima Meadows, Playfair, Portland Meadows and of course still here at Emerald Downs. She rode at many if not most of the Fair meets and other smaller tracks in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

Her career numbers are 329-372-420 from 3,584 career starts. That’s a win rate of 9% and a top 3 finish of 31%. Doll rode a lot of longshots in her time but was always willing to jump on a ride for the connections.

Connie Doll deserves the spotlight for a magnificent career that she has not said is over with yet. Don’t be surprised if we update this story again next Summer.

The 17th Power Rankings

#1 Alex Cruz (last ranking #1)

#2 Alex Anaya (last ranking #unranked)

#3 Juan Gutierrez (last ranking #5)

#4 Kevin Orozco (last ranking #7)

#5 Kevin Radke (last ranking #3)

#6 Jake Samuels (last ranking 4)

#7 Clayan Millwood (last ranking #unranked)

#8 Leslie Mawing (last ranking #8)

#9 Eddie Martinez (last ranking unranked)

#10 Jose Zunino (last ranking 10)

Power Ranking Notes:

One note of substance is that Javier Matias has shifted his tack to Southern California to work horses. He was hit with a suspension and decided to head south early. There is a chance he could return for closing day if he has some Stakes rides. If he does not return he will have finished the season with a 23-14-24 record from 150 rides. That is a 16% win percent and a 41% top 3 finish. He had 1 Stakes win in the Muckleshoot Derby and racked up $377,392 in earnings.

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