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Baze records 11,000th win Hall of Fame jockey Russell Baze became the first rider in history to record 11,000 career wins when guiding SEPARATE FOREST (Forestry) to a debut victory in Saturday's 4TH race at Santa Rosa. The three-year-old filly, trained by Richard Mandella, coasted home by 11 lengths in a time of 1:02 1/5 for 5 1/2 furlongs. Baze surpassed Laffit Pincay Jr. as North America's all-time winningest rider with 9,531 victories in December 2006, and reached the 10,000-win mark in February 2008. He was the second jockey to accomplish the latter feat as South American mainstay Jorge Ricardo recorded his milestone in Argentina one month before Baze. Ricardo, who is still active, was sitting at 10,867 wins through Friday. A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Baze hails from a distinguished racing family. His grandfather, Burt Baze, was an owner/trainer on the old Blue Mountain circuit in the northwest, and Russell's grandmother rode Burt's horses. Russell's father, Joe Baze, won riding titles at Bay Meadows, Golden Gate Fields and Longacres and later became a trainer. Several other close family members have been jockeys, including his second cousins, Tyler and Michael Baze, who are currently riding on the Southern California and Chicago circuits, respectively. Fittingly, Russell earned his first win aboard a horse conditioned by his father on October 28, 1974, at Yakima Meadows in Washington. Since then, he has become synonymous with Northern California racing, having racked up dozens of riding titles at the now-defunct Bay Meadows and at Golden Gate Fields. Baze, 52, was honored with a special Eclipse Award in 1995 for being the first jockey to score 400 victories per year for the fourth straight year, an accomplishment that no other rider has been able to match. Eleven times he has led the nation in wins -- in 2009 (415 victories), 2008 (403), 2007 (399), 2005 (375), 2002 (431), 2000 (412), 1996 (415), 1995 (448), 1994 (415), 1993 (410) and 1992 (433). Baze established a Northern California record for most scores on a single card when capturing seven races at Golden Gate on April 16, 1992. In the summer of 2006, he tied the American mark for consecutive wins by a jockey when he landed nine straight contests over the course of two days at the San Mateo County Fair meeting on August 17-18. Of all his equine partners, the late Lost in the Fog stands out. Baze was the regular rider for the Greg Gilchrist-trained colt, steering him to victories in such major contests as the 2005 King's Bishop S. (G1), Carry Back S. (G2) and Swale S. (G2) en route to champion sprinter honors. Lost in the Fog added another win to Baze's tally in 2006, when the dark bay took the Aristides H. (G3) despite suffering from terminal cancer that would be diagnosed two months later. Baze has also had his share of adversity, overcoming a number of injuries in the course of his career. He has broken his pelvis, ribs and collarbone, along with bones in his hand and neck. In addition, he has sustained compression fractures as well as a torn disc in his back, not to mention various sprains and concussions. Inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame in 1999, Baze was honored with the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award in 2002.
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