Talamo loaded for this week's Oaklawn stakes

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Jockey Joe Talamo vaulted into a tie atop the stakes standings at Oaklawn Park last Saturday when he won both the Honeybee and Hot Springs. He can add to his totals this week, with key mounts in four stakes.

Talamo, 30, rides Remembering Rita in the Temperence Hill on Friday, then on Saturday will be aboard No Parole in the Grade 2 Rebel, Serengeti Empress in the Grade 2 Azeri, and Night Ops in the Essex Handicap.

Talamo has three stakes wins at the meet to lead that category along with Ricardo Santana Jr. Talamo will be teaming for the first time with No Parole, an undefeated stakes winner. The $1 million Rebel, a mile and a sixteenth race that carries points for the Kentucky Derby, will be the first start beyond a mile for No Parole.

“I don’t think distance is going to be a problem,” Talamo said. “Watching all three of his races, I’m impressed by how fast he is and at the same time rateable. Watching his race replays, he seems to be a very easy-going horse when he gets to the lead.”

No Parole’s wins have come by a combined margin of 34 lengths. He will be stepping outside of the Louisiana-bred ranks for the first time Saturday.

“I think there’s more upside,” Talamo said. “He’s shown a lot of talent.”

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Talamo also will be riding Serengeti Empress for the first time. The winner of last year’s Kentucky Oaks, she launched her 4-year-old season Jan. 26 with a runner-up finish in the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic at Sam Houston.

“She seems like a definite speed filly that wants to be in front,” Talamo said. “What impresses me is when she gets out in front, gets in a nice, comfortable rhythm, it’s pretty amazing how far she holds her speed. Watching her Kentucky Oaks, that was sheer determination. They came to her turning for home, and she fought off every challenge.

“I’m very fortunate to pick up No Parole and Serengeti Empress for Tom Amoss. He’s given me some really good opportunities this meet, actually put me on my first winner this meet. It’s an honor to ride those two.”

Amoss, a trainer based at Fair Grounds, has a division at Oaklawn this year and has regularly used fellow New Orleans native Talamo, who moved back to the Midwest this meet after 14 years in Southern California.

“I’ve known Joe since he was an apprentice at Fair Grounds,” Amoss said, “and actually he won the title as an apprentice at the Fair Grounds. I don’t know when the last time that happened was.

“An overused term is student of the game, and although overused, it’s apropos here. Joe studies. He watches the replays. He learns about the horses. He’s got all the skills to be what he now is – one of the top riders in the country – and the one I like the most is his ability to finish on a horse. He’s a strong finisher on a horse.”

Talamo also is a “good judge of pace,” said Brad Cox, who trains Night Ops. Cox has regularly ridden Talamo this meet. Last week they won the Honeybee together with Shedaresthedevil.

“We found out last fall he was wanting to make the move to Oaklawn and thought he would be a great addition to the jockey colony,” Cox said. “We get along really well.”

Much like Amoss, Cox goes way back with Talamo.

“I’ve known Brad since I was 7 or 8, when he was an assistant trainer for Dallas Stewart,” Talamo said. “Before Dallas would get to the Fair Grounds, I would rake his shed row, walk horses, and Brad told me to keep a little tab, write down what I did, and give the bill to Dallas.”

At the time, Talamo’s father, Joe Talamo Jr., was an assistant to trainer Connie Tassistro and they were stabled in the same barn as Stewart. Talamo knew then he wanted to become a jockey, and after getting off to a fast start at home in Louisiana made his way to Southern California in April 2007.

Right off the bat he had a Grade 1 stakes double with Bilo and Nashoba’s Key on July 7, 2007. He continued to win at that level with such runners as I Want Revenge, Sidney’s Candy, Abel Tasman, Obviously, and Melatonin. Talamo’s success in stakes – he’s won 236 – has helped lift the winner of more than 2,000 races to career mount earnings of $107 million.

This past November, Talamo decided to relocate to the Midwest.

“It really had to do with more opportunity,” he said. “The last couple of years, I hadn’t been riding as many as I used to. We decided to come out here. It seemed every single race was a full field, a lot of opportunity.

“I’m fully committed to Oaklawn and Kentucky. It’s not, ‘We’ll see how it goes.’ It was a tough decision, just for the fact that I was out there for 14 years and my wife, Elizabeth, being from there. You get used to your routine and everything else. Elizabeth was in 100 percent, and with our two boys, we thought it was a good time because they’re so young.”

Talamo said the move has been a positive as the family loves the racing atmosphere in Arkansas. It doesn’t hurt that Talamo is in the midst of strong meet, ranking third in wins with 22 and second in mount earnings with $1.4 million.

He could be sitting on a memorable week.