Despite missing Sunday's card with an injury, he leads all riders this season at State Fair Park with 12 victories.
BRIAN ROSENTHAL / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, May 25, 2007 7:00 pm
Veteran jockey Dennis Collins is hurt.
That’s not necessarily good news for other riders at State Fair Park who hope to keep pace with the red-hot Collins.
“I ride better when I’m hurt,” Collins said, “whether it’s physically or mentally.”
Lately, it’s been a bit of both.
Collins returned to the saddle Friday night in Lincoln after sitting out Sunday’s card because of injury. Even with that absence, Collins entered weekend racing with 12 victories to lead all riders. That puts him on a pace for an impressive 88 victories over 37 days of racing.
“Yeah, that’s pretty darned good,” said Collins, whose highest State Fair Park total is 73 victories.
Collins is coming off his first-ever riding title at Fonner Park, where he finished with 63 wins, 65 seconds and 31 thirds in 286 mounts. He had a winning percentage of .220 and an in-the-money percentage of .555. Those respective numbers in Lincoln, through two weekends, are .300 and .675.
What’s gotten into Collins?
He said he’s been focusing all of his energy toward riding after going through a divorce last winter.
Said Collins: “I’m riding hurt inside.”
He’s a little banged up on the outside, too. Collins was injured in last Saturday’s third race when his horse froze, he said.
“The last thing you want to do is pull on a horse that’s freezing up,” Collins said. “Well, the pony boy kept on walking when she froze up, and he pulled on her. She went up in the air, she bounced up and came down.
“I probably went 10 feet up in the air and came down, and it knocked me out.”
Collins finished Saturday’s card but was in pain when he tried working horses Sunday morning.
“My head hurt, my neck hurt,” he said, “my shoulder and my chest.”
So he sat out Sunday — frustrating, because four of Collins’ scheduled mounts won, “and I think two others should have, so (my victory total) would have been 18.”
Collins took the week off and rode four horses Friday morning, and said he felt fine.
Collins said he and his agent, Dan Coughlin Jr., have “been on a holy terror” since reconnecting midway through last season. Coughlin had served as Collins’ agent for about nine years until 2005.
“He knows that I try, and I know he has enough connections,” Collins said. “He’s the man to see.”
Collins hasn’t won a riding title at State Fair Park since 2001, when he finished back-to-back titles. He admits he’s eying another.
“I do that every year,” Collins said. “I just try to win as many races as I possibly can. This year I have an opportunity, with the horses I have, to do very good at every track that I go to.
“I like it here. Out of all the tracks, this is the one I like the most. This has always been a successful track for me.”
Journal Star Stakes
My Secret Star, trained by Milton Gaede, is a 2-1 morning line favorite to win tonight’s $15,000 Journal Star Stakes.
Larren Delorme will ride the 3-year-old gelding, which has won three of his seven starts this year.
Gaede won last week’s $15,000 Speed Stakes with Another Audible. The 4-year-old filly, which won three of four races at Fonner Park by 38¾ lengths, recorded her first stakes victory by 8½ lengths over Country Warrior.
Post time for today’s Journal Star Stakes is 9:32 p.m. The 6-furlong race will feature six horses.
Butler injured
Jockey Beth Butler, who’d ridden Another Audible all five times in Grand Island, didn’t get a chance to ride the filly last Saturday.
Butler was injured in the fourth race the previous day when her horse, Wild Eyed Jake, clipped heels with another horse on the first turn.
Butler fell and suffered a concussion. She also needed stitches in her forehead and had a crack in one of her vertebrae, according to racing manager Greg Hosch.
“She was banged up pretty good,” Hosch said.
Butler is expected to miss 3-4 weeks. In her first time riding in Lincoln, Butler had two wins and six thirds in 21 mounts.
Vicki Warhol rode Another Audible in place of Butler and is riding again this weekend in Lincoln. Warhol rode four winners in seven mounts last weekend.
Reach Brian Rosenthal at 473-7436 or brosenthal@journalstar.com.