The Winning Angel

To handicap a horse race simply by picking a jockey, regardless of his mount, the trainer or the opposition, is usually considered a form of gambling insanity. Not so last week at New York's Aqueduct race track. There, a $2 win bet on the same jockey in each of eight races on the same afternoon would have paid off $56. The jockey was Angel Cordero Jr., who has been almost unbeatable since the opening of Aqueduct's spring meeting last month. In 15 days of racing at the "Big A," Cordero has ridden 48 winners and finished in the money in 88 out of 112 races. Last Wednesday, in driving rain, he won the first five races on the card. He had no mount in the sixth but came back to win the stakes. This year, in a sport where a winning rate of 15%-20% is considered excellent, Cordero has crossed the finish line first in 43% of his rides.

Winning is not new to Cordero. Last year he won the Kentucky Derby on Cannonade and went on to collect more than $4.2 million in purses for the year. This year Cordero would like to win no less than $5 million. (Winning jockeys keep 10% of the winning purse.)

How does he do it? For one thing, Cordero was bred to ride in a sport where bloodlines count. Both his grandfathers were jockeys in Santurce, P.R. Angel (who pronounces his Spanish name An-hell and likes to think of himself as a flying angel) has been riding professionally for 15 of his 32 years. The 5-ft. 3-in., 113-lb. jock, a bubbling personality who often sings while riding to the post, is a quiet artist at the reins. Along with a "good-looking seat"--he rides in a tight crouch with his back parallel to the horse's body--Cordero has one of the most effective whip techniques in the business. By switching his whip from hand to hand in heavy traffic without missing a beat, he can often shift a horse into overdrive.

Shoo-In. Cordero, of course, employs more than a model technique. Says Aqueduct Steward Warren Mehrtens, a former jockey who rode Assault to the Triple Crown in 1946, "Angel knows the characteristics of his horse as well as the others in the race. If he's behind a horse that he knows tends to drift outside down the stretch, he knows the inside is open to him." Cordero also possesses a fine sense of timing. Steward Nathaniel Hyland admires the way Cordero "paces horses to save their speed for the end." After riding one long shot to victory from far back last week, Cordero explained, "I knew even though I was five lengths back at the quarter pole that the horse was ready to win."

Cordero can be so intent in the saddle that he does not know whether he has won or lost a race. "You ride so hard," he says, "you don't realize you pass the wire." Even after the race has been run Angel does not let up. "What a gutsy guy!" says Trainer John Parisella. "He's the best salesman at the track. When he comes in second or third, he makes you feel the horse is a shoo-in the next time."

Cordero does not really have to sell himself. His agent, Tony Matos, is considered about the best. Arriving at the barns every morning before 7 o'clock, he watches horses working out and talks to trainers, trying to select the best mounts. "I could have Angel riding four of the six horses in some races," he says. Matos usually makes his selections ten days in advance, though last-minute changes keep him busy. Last year Matos selected Cannonade as Cordero's Derby entry. Reflecting his symbiotic relationship with his client, Matos speaks as if jockey and agent were indivisible. "I rode Cannonade in the Stepping Stone before the Derby," he recalls, "and liked the way he handled himself. I thought Little Current was not at his peak yet." He was right. Little Current did not reach winning form until two weeks later in the Preakness.

Matos, who receives 25% of Cordero's income, keeps his partner running at a frantic pace. "Angel loves to ride," says Matos. "He'll travel anywhere." On Sundays Cordero often flies to California to race, returning to ride on Monday in New York. In 1973 he commuted to Paris one Sunday to ride in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The way he has been racing this year, they should bring the Arc to him.

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