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Hall of Fame: Jockeys

Russell Baze is nothing if not consistent. In 1998 he rode 400 winners for the seventh consecutive year, a feat that no other rider has come close to matching. He is still riding and currently has won 22% of all his races.

With a father who was a leading rider in northern California, Baze began learning his craft at a very young age. In 1974 he rode his first winner at Yakima Meadows. He has spent the bulk of his career at tracks in northern California where he held leading rider titles annually since 1980, except for the three years when he rode in southern California. Between 1976 and 1999 Baze rode 431 graded stakes mounts with 55 wins (13%) and overall won with 400 (19%) of 2,123 stakes mounts. Aboard Devil's Orchid he won the Grade I Santa Monica as well as two other stakes races in California and New York. He has also won the Grade I Oak Tree Invitation with Hawkster and Both Ends Burning.

Baze cruises home with Event of the Year in the Jim Beam Stakes
©1998 Turfway Park

In 1998 Baze won 24 stakes races including the Jim Beam and the El Camino Real Derby with Event of the Year, the Golden Gate Derby with Clover Hunter, and the Brown Bess Handicap with Traces of Gold.

In 1995 the National Turf Writers Association created the Isaac Murphy Award for the rider with the nation's highest win percentage. Baze was the only recipient of that award for eight consecutive years. He won again in 2005. By riding over 400 winners for seven consecutive years, he set a high standard for other riders to meet because no other rider has achieved the mark more than three years. Russell Baze was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1999. On December 1, 2006, he became the winningest rider when he broke Laffit Pincay's record of 9,350 victories.

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