Longtime Sonoma County Fair jockey Russell Baze retires

It would be impossible to pick every winner at the upcoming Sonoma County Fair race meet, but one thing is certain.

It’s guaranteed there will be a new leading jockey for the meet which begins Thursday and runs through August 14. The reason is because Russell Baze, who has a collection of top rider trophies, has retired.

The world’s winningest jockey hung up his tack on June 12. He ended his 42-year career with 12,842 wins and his mounts earned $199,339,219. Including last summer when he rode 18 winners, he captured more than 20 riding titles at the local fair. That’s in addition to 54 at Golden Gate Fields and 40 at defunct Bay Meadows.

Baze didn’t go into much detail about his reasons for retiring. The soon to be 58-year-old only said to his agent Ray Harris that it was time.

Steve Specht, a Santa Rosa resident and one of the leading trainers in Northern California, said Baze’s announcement took him by surprise.

“It was a shock, especially the way he did it,” Specht said. “I didn’t think he’d ever quit. He seemed to love it all the way to the end. I’m glad for him. He didn’t have any major injuries, I’m happy he retired healthy. We’ll all miss him.”

With Baze out of the picture, the competition for leading rider honors at the fair is expected to be between Frank Alvarado, Ricardo Gonzalez and Juan Hernandez. Alvarado, who is 47, was leading rider at the Sacramento State Fair which concluded this past Sunday.

On Thursday, Alvarado and Specht will join forces on Smokin’ Steve in the fifth race. Specht also has a horse in the featured seventh race. That’s a turf sprint over 5 furlongs and Julien Couton will be aboard Emmy and I.

The fields for the for the first of 11 racing days were drawn on Monday and Director of Racing Stacey Lapham was happy with the way the eight-race card came together.

“Entries were great,” she said. “The size of the fields are solid and everyone is excited we’re going to have a successful meet.”