During a visit to the Westfield Mall in Arcadia recently, Alex Solis had no intention of shopping for a mount. But that's exactly what the 40-year-old jockey did.Solis, who was recuperating from a spinal injury sustained in a fall, was there to meet bloodstock agent Luis Boasa. By accident, they bumped into trainer Bradley Ross."Luis introduced me to Bradley who told me he had a horse he wanted me to ride for him," Solis said. "This was about two months ago and I wasn't back riding yet. I told Ross that and he said if I can ride her when I'm ready, that would be great."
The rest, as they say, is history. Solis rode Miss Terrible to a 12-1 upset victory in Sunday's $100,000 Las Flores Handicap (gr. III)."He ran into Ross at the mall," said Scott McClellan, who has been an agent for 32 years and has enjoyed a fruitful association with Solis for about 10 years."Alex told me, 'This guy's got a filly that's won seven (Group Is) in her native Argentina.' Bobby Frankel used to train her and he said she could run, but Ross didn't know what race he was going in. He kept changing his mind. "At 9:30 in the morning Ross called me and asked if we wanted to ride her. 'I'm going to put her in the Las Flores,' he said, 'but I might not run.' He still wasn't sure. But I didn't have a mount in the race so (we) ended up riding her. It wasn't any genius move on my part.
"The trouble is now, Alex is hanging out at the mall looking for mounts."
