Monday, 28 May 2012: Champion South American jockey Jorge Ricardo has reclaimed the world record for career victories after riding his 11,596th winner to overtake his US rival Russell Baze.
Ricardo had been trailing California-based Baze for three years before he rode a treble at San Isidro in Buenos Aires on Friday to regain the lead as the world's most successful jockey.,
Ricardo, 50, lost the lead to Baze when he was forced to spend more than six months on the sidelines to fight cancer in 2009.
Baze, now 53, became the all-time leader in December of 2006 when he rode his 9531st winner to surpass the then record established seven years earlier by Panamanian legend Laffit Pincay.
Only a month later Ricardo also surpassed Pincay's mark and he and Baze swapped the overall lead on several occasions until Ricardo was sidelined.
Ricardo won 26 riding titles in Rio de Janeiro before moving to Argentina in 2006. He became the first jockey in the world to reach 10,000 wins in January 2008 but Baze beat him to 11,000 in August 2010.
Ricardo is outscoring Baze 186-157 in their personal duel for 2012.
The pair have only competed against just once when they both rode in the 2008 Shergar Cup at Ascot in England.
Meanwhile South America could have a Breeders' Cup Turf contender after Peruvian star Al Qasr qualified with a resounding victory in the G1 Gran Premio 25 de Mayo in Buenos Aires.
It is the second South American race to be included in the Breeders' Cup 'Win and You're In' challenge after the inaugural Clasico Belgrano in 2011.
Racing for the first time on the turf proved no problem for Al Qasr, a four-year-old US-bred son of Aptitude trained by Juan Suarez and ridden by Carlos Trujillo.
Al Qasr rallied to score by two lengths, becoming the first foreign runner to win the 25 de Mayo since Sea Girl's double in 1997 and 1998.
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