Jorge Velasquez celebrates a birthday tomorrow, his 48th, which comes only a few months after he was busted up pretty good in a training spill at Calder. No one would hold it against him if he simply said "enough," and walked away. But Velasquez will be out there tomorrow, hustling for mounts, just as he will be every day this winter in Florida, driven to keep going by a goal.
Officially, Velasquez needs 321 winners to become only the fourth jockey in history to win 7,000 races. He maintains that he is closer because some of his foreign victories have not been included in the total. Only Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay and Angel Cordero Jr. have reached the 7,000 mark.
"Only three in the world have done it, so I would like to be number four," said Velasquez, who suffered a broken pelvis and a hairline neck fracture in February. "That's a select group and it is a big number. I have no idea how long I'll keep going, but I'll get to 7,000 and then I'll think about retirement."
His glory years are behind him, and he knows it. Velasquez, who was once the co-owner of the New York circuit along with Cordero, is the fifth leading rider at Calder. When other top riders arrive, he'll have to work to stay in the top 10.
"In this business, it's what you do today," he said. "They don't care about yesterday or the day before. They forget you so quickly, so easily."