There was no need to watch a movie, or find something to read. Talamo was busy reflecting on the events of recent weeks - his success at Santa Anita this year, and his win in Saturday's Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct aboard Triple Crown hopeful I Want Revenge. When he allowed himself to daydream, there was always the future.
"You keep thinking, I'm not supposed to be doing this good," Talamo said on Sunday.
Less than three years after riding his first race, and a little more than a year after the Louisiana native was honored with the Eclipse Award as the nation's outstanding apprentice jockey of 2007, Talamo is on the verge of his first Kentucky Derby mount with I Want Revenge.
Every time Talamo mentions the colt, especially the emphatic victory in the Gotham, an ear-to-ear grin creeps across his face. It is the look of a young man who cannot believe what is happening to him.
"I don't know how to put it into words," he said. "Just to ride in the Kentucky Derby would be incredible."
Talamo turned 19 in January - "I'm getting old," he said - and the milestones are piling up. He won his first riding title at Fair Grounds in 2007, and made the successful transition to riding on the tougher California circuit later that year. It was during that season that he earned the mount on Nashoba's Key, a mare he rode to wins in two Grade 1 stakes - the Vanity Handicap and Yellow Ribbon Invitational.
While Talamo did not win a Grade 1 stakes in 2008, he won the Grade 1 Santa Maria Handicap last month here aboard Santa Teresita. She is a leading contender in Saturday's $300,000 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap at Santa Anita.
Santa Teresita pulled an upset at 13-1 in the Santa Maria. She will be a shorter price in the Santa Margarita, a race led by the 4-year-old Life Is Sweet.
Santa Teresita "is a stalker and I think she'll get first run," Talamo said. "That will help."
Through Sunday, Talamo was fourth in the jockey standings at Santa Anita with 30 wins. He will not win the riding title - Garrett Gomez leads the ranks - but Talamo is content with his placing.
"Santa Anita is the toughest meet out here other than Del Mar," he said. "To be in the top five is incredible."
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