Following a successful winter in South Florida, a determined Junior Alvarado will resume riding in New York on Friday at Aqueduct Racetrack.
After many years of staying in New York for the Big A winter meet, Alvarado, 34, instead took his tack to Gulfstream Park for their championship meet where he finished sixth in the jockey standings with 53 wins, including seven stakes scores.
“For a long time, I've waited for this opportunity and it felt like the right time, so I took advantage of it and I thought it went better than expected,” Alvarado said. “The first couple of weeks were a little slow, but that was a lot of people getting to know me and trying to figure out the track and knowing when and where to make your move. Things began picking up after that.”
Much of Alvarado's success this winter came on the turf for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. He guided Annex, a sophomore Constitution colt, to stakes scores in the Palm Beach and Cutler Bay as well as capturing the Grade 3 Sweetest Chant with White Frost, a 3-year-old Candy Ride filly.
Both Mott trainees could be contenders this summer in NYRA's lucrative Turf Triple series, implemented in 2019 as the turf equivalent of the Triple Crown, with all legs contested at Belmont Park and Saratoga Race Course.
Alvarado also picked up Gulfstream stakes wins with Venezuelan Hug in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf for trainer Danny Gargan; Gray's Fable for Hall of Fame trainer Roger Attfield in the Grade 3 Kitten's Joy; and Pacific Gale in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie for John Kimmel.
Alvarado's mounts banked more than $2.3 million in earnings at the Gulfstream meet, where he boasted a record of 377-53-75-48 while finishing in the money at a 47 percent clip.
“This is the first year where I've started things off with this much success,” Alvarado said. “Coming back to New York, I've been riding a lot of good horses that I picked up down in Florida. Coming into the spring, I don't know that I've ever had this many good horses lined up, so I am very confident moving forward. It gives me a lot of confidence in the decisions I make in riding.”
Alvarado departed for Florida after a strong fall campaign in New York, notching five stakes wins during the Big A fall meet and six stakes victories during the Belmont fall meet, including Grade 1 scores aboard Dayoutoftheoffice in the Frizette and Gufo in the Belmont Derby Invitational.
On Saturday, Alvarado will have the chance to parlay his South Florida prosperity to the Empire State, with mounts in four of the five graded stakes on a lucrative card.
In the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial presented by Resorts World Casino, Alvarado will pilot Frank Fletcher Racing Operations' Candy Man Rocket, who will try to make amends after an off-the-board effort as the beaten favorite in the Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby on March 6.
The Mott-trained son of Candy Ride tasted sweet victory in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs on February 6 but did not get the most favorable of runs into the first turn of the Tampa Bay Derby, where he broke awkwardly and was shuffled to mid pack in between horses.
Alvarado, in search of his first Wood Memorial win, will guide Candy Man Rocket from post 7 in a field of 9. He said the outside post in Saturday's nine-furlong event will be beneficial.
“Things just didn't go our way that day,” Alvarado said of the Tampa Bay Derby effort. “There was some bumping going into the first turn and we had to start over and go to the outside. I would draw a line through that race. We have a good post to the outside on Saturday. Hopefully, he breaks well and gets a race similar to what he did in the Sam Davis, when he was in the clear on the outside.”
The Wood Memorial offers 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the top-four finishers and a good result on Saturday would propel Candy Man Rocket, currently 32nd on the leaderboard with 10 points, into the starting gate on the first Saturday in May.
Alvarado's previous Derby mounts include Mohaymen [4th, 2016], Enticed [14th, 2018] and Tax [14th, 2019].
Alvarado's stakes lineup on Saturday incudes mounts aboard multiple Grade 1-winner Mind Control in the Grade 1, $300,000 Carter [Race 6]; Modernist in the Grade 3, $150,000 Excelsior [Race 8]; and Mia Martina in the Grade 3, $250,000 Gazelle [Race 9], which offers 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points. He will also partner Lady Sansa in her North American debut in a turf allowance in Race 7 for trainer Christophe Clement.
Alvarado formally returns to action on Thursday at the Big A, and is named to ride Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks winner Paris Lights in the Grade 3, $150,000 Distaff [Race 7]. He also is scheduled aboard Olympique [Race 1], Runabout [Race 2], and Box N Score [Race 6].
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