Best rider so far is a Baze

As Hollywood Park starts its third week today, which jockeys are doing best and worst?

Rafael Bejarano leads the official standings with 14 wins, ahead of Garrett Gomez's 8 and Michael Baze's 7.

But I have my own way to rate jockeys. I come up with a number for each rider by adding up the good things he does -- wins, long-shot wins, photo-finish wins, stakes wins -- and subtracting the bad things -- losses aboard betting favorites.

By this system, Michael Baze is off to the best start at Hollywood Park with +9 (just to show you how it works: M. Baze has 7 wins, 2 long-shot wins, 1 photo-finish win, 1 stakes win minus 2 beaten favorites), followed by Bejarano at +8 and Victor Espinoza and Martin Pedroza each at +6.

Gomez is at 0, and the rider who's really struggling is Joel Rosario at -4. Rosario is 0 for 6 aboard favorites on the main track.

Looking closer:

- Best in main-track sprints so far: M. Baze.
- Best in main-track routes: Bejarano.
- Best on turf: Espinoza.
- Biggest difference: Gomez has been good in two-turn races and turf races, bad in sprints.
- Perfect record: Pedro Arambula has 3 wins, no losing favorites.
- Best speed rider: Pedroza has 3 wire-to-wire wins.
- Best come-from-behinder: Bejarano has rallied 4 winners from the back half of the field.
- Best long-shot rider: Jose Valdivia has 3 winners paying 10-1 or more.

We'll try to update this stuff every week.