Talamo picks up four mounts in California return

Friday morning was a last chance for errands for jockey Joe Talamo before he rode at Santa Anita for the first time since early 2020 later that afternoon.

Talamo, 34, has been based in the Midwest in recent years, but has returned to California for the next six months in an effort to reboot a career that stalled over the winter.

He had one mount booked on Friday and Saturday and two on Sunday, including rides in both of the weekend stakes.

“I’m grateful for that,” he said on Friday morning. “We’ll try to build on that.

“I was pleasantly surprised. Getting here on a Thursday, I didn’t expect much every day.”

Talamo rode workouts on Thursday and Friday morning, and snuck over to the jockeys’ room between workouts on Friday morning to drop off his tack.

The jockeys’ room at Santa Anita, and the famous racetrack, are familiar territory. Of his 2,334 wins through Thursday, 868 have been at Santa Anita.

Talamo plans to ride at Santa Anita through the conclusion of the current spring meeting on June 16 and then focus on the Del Mar summer meeting, which runs from July 20 to Sept. 8. As recently as the summer of 2019, Talamo finished fourth in the standings at Del Mar with 23 wins.

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With the return to Califonria, Talamo is hoping for a turnaround from recent results. Since the start of the year, Talamo has won five races from 114 mounts at Turfway Park and Churchill Downs. The most recent win was Just Basking in a maiden race at Churchill on April 27.

“This winter was brutally slow,” he said. “For whatever reason, I couldn’t get anything going. At Churchill, I did win on a nice maiden there.”

Talamo has a long-term goal to ride at Fair Grounds next winter. The focus, for now, is on Southern California.

“It feels good to get back here and hopefully get things rolling,” he said. “I’ll definitely stay after Del Mar a bit.

“The plan is to go back to ride at Fair Grounds in the winter. From now until then, I’m focused on here and trying to win as many as I can.”

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