'TDN Rising Star'Zozos (Munnings) returned to the work tab for the first time since his runner-up effort in the GII Louisiana Derby with a half-mile move in :48 flat (17/76) early Friday morning at Churchill Downs.
With exercise rider Kelvin Perez in the saddle, Zozos clocked an opening quarter-mile of :25 and completed the final quarter in :23, galloping out five furlongs in 1:00.80, according to Churchill Downs clocker John Nichols.
“It was a good first work back after the Louisiana Derby,” trainer Brad Cox said. “He came out of the race in great shape and I think got a lot out of finishing second. He really finished up well in today's work.”
Louisiana Derby runner-up Zozos headed back to the barn following his half-mile work in :48. Splits: 25/100.80. #KyDerbypic.twitter.com/aC7zSd0KzB
An incorrectly-fitted saddle can cause lameness, gait faults, shoeing problems, and even personality problems, explained farrier Steve Kraus in the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Seminar Series.
Known for troubleshooting lame, injured and underperforming horses, Kraus is an American Farriers Association Certified Journeyman Farrier who has been the head of Farrier Services and a Senior Lecturer of Large Animal Surgery at Cornell, and the instructor of the Farrier School there since 2010.
Prior to that, he worked for over 40 years in his own farrier business in Central New York. He has lectured to farriers, veterinarians and horse owners all over the US, Canada, South America and Europe. He has been a featured speaker at the International Hoof Care Summit, Laminitis Conference, Equine Affaire, and the American Farriers Association Convention. Kraus has written many articles published in the American Farriers Journal, The Horse Journal, and The Professional Farrier. In 2016, he was inducted into the International Farriers Hall of Fame.
Kraus explained the basic signs of incorrect saddle fit as follows: saddle sores, dry spots in the sweat pattern under the saddle, white hairs, muscle atrophy, and even temporary swelling. Saddles should not extend past the horse's 18th thoracic vertebrae, at which point the ribs end, he explained.
Conversely, a correctly-fitted saddle has the following properties: stability (saddle does not rock on the horse's back), good wither clearance, even contact across the entire panel, and the points (forks) of the tree do not impinge on the horse's scapula. Kraus showed that the flaps of the saddle can go ahead of the scapula, but the tree itself cannot.
While Kraus admits that certain half-pads can positively impact saddle fit, he prefers to avoid that mechanism because it takes the rider further away from the horse, decreasing the rider's ability to feel what the horse is doing.
He went on to explain a number of issues that may be caused by an incorrectly-fitted saddle, and shared the most-likely causes of those problems:
When a horse lacks impulsion, or desire to move forward, it may be caused by the saddle forks (points of the tree) pinching the horse's scapula (shoulder blade).
A horse showing short, choppy strides or less extension of his gaits, it may be caused by the saddle hitting his withers.
Gait faults like forging or overreaching, or even a horse refusing to jump, may be caused by the saddle pinching the horse's back.
A horse who bucks under saddle could be faced with a saddle that is too long, placing the rider out of balance.
A horse who demonstrates poor turning or flexibility could be affected by a saddle which either pinches or is too long, or both.
Finally, an ill-fitting saddle can cause actual lameness and/or spinal injury, so Kraus recommends always having your saddle checked by a master saddler.
Kraus also explained that riders can cause some of the same issues, even in a correctly-fitted saddle. He recommended that riders ask for help to determine whether their own balance issues are affecting their horses, and also that they should not ask their horses to carry more than 30 percent of the horse's body weight.
The Cornell Equine Seminar Series is presented by the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine's Equine Hospital, the New York State 4-H Horse Program and Cornell Cooperative Extension. Held monthly, equine experts present on important equine health and management topics. The event is free and open to the public.
In a colony known for its production of talented young riders, Maclovio Enriquez Jr. is looking to add his name to the list.
Maryland-based riders have captured 12 Eclipse Awards as champion apprentice, the most recent being Alexander Crispin in 2020. Teenage sensation Charlie Marquez was a finalist in 2021, despite spending half the year as a journeyman.
Enriquez, 22, rode his first professional race Nov. 2, 2021 at Mountaineer Park in his home state of West Virginia aboard Tiger Shark, finishing eighth. Five days later he broke through with his first win on Petal, and later on the card also won with Bobbobsbaby, his third and fourth career mounts.
After going 12-for-82 at the Mountaineer meet that ended Dec. 15 and included three other multi-win days, Enriquez made his Laurel Park debut Dec. 16. His first win came in Maryland came Dec. 19 on Steely Band, a 4-year-old Maryland-bred daughter of Grade 3 winner Bandbox racing first off the claim for trainer Anthony Farrior.
“I started very quickly and the riders around me at Mountaineer were telling me, 'You only have one apprenticeship; make it last. You want to make it worth it. You want to be somewhere where you're going to be around great people and great horses and just make the most out of the experience,'” Enriquez said. “It was, 'You should just go see the world while you can right now.'”
Enriquez began his journey to becoming a jockey in late 2018, working on a farm in exchange for getting on horses.
“We would go by and do stalls and stuff like that. When the time came to pay us, I told my mom, 'I don't want [any] money. Just tell [them] to let me get on a couple horses.' About a month later, I was ready to keep going with it and just take things full speed.
“Were there any doubts? Yes. For sure. Absolutely. A lot of people see the smiles and how far you can level up to the next spot just by working hard and showing up,” he added. “A lot of people didn't see the times I would fall off three or four times in one day, the times that it is tough and you're exhausted and I'd call my mom and say, 'I don't know if I can do this.' Thankfully I always had that backbone. My mother has always been my biggest supporter.”
This year, Enriquez has ridden primarily at Laurel, often riding an evening card the same day at Charles Town. He finished with 12 wins and $486,163 in purses earned during Laurel's 2022 winter meet that ended March 27. For his career, he has 37 wins and purse earnings of more than $930,000.
On March 4, Enriquez rode stakes winner Eastern Bay to victory in his comeback race at Laurel for Maryland's five-time leading trainer Claudio Gonzalez, then won twice at Charles Town to mark a career first.
“One of my goals was to win three races in one day. To actually do that it was out of this world,” he said. “That's one of those things that kind of keep me going. Now it's, maybe I could win four, I could win five.”
Enriquez is one of four apprentices at Laurel riding with a seven-pound weight allowance, along with Yan Aviles, Jeiron Barbosa and Bryson Butterfly. Jean Alvelo, who had two winners Thursday, is another apprentice who rides with a five-pound bug.
They call it “pilot error.” It's just that you have all the correction of perspective, right there, that anyone could possibly require. If a jockey makes a mistake, the consequences obviously tend to be a good deal less drastic than for a guy flying a plane.
Besides, I have never liked the kind of blame culture that unites handicappers and horsemen in casting jockeys as the villains of their woulda-coulda-shoulda world. To be fair, perhaps that's rather more common in my native environment, racing on turf in Europe, where the tendency to restrain a horse for a late run can vividly magnify rider miscalculation. Carrying speed on dirt, however, calls for no less subtle judgement of pace and position–as was conspicuously apparent at Oaklawn last weekend.
But while these guys are only human, and no lives were lost, there's no denying how maddening it can be for those closest to a horse, to see so much patient toil unraveled in a matter of seconds by a jockey who can flit from mount to mount as insouciantly as a butterfly. These big races can represent the apex of a pyramid of development extending not months, but years, and sometimes the whole thing can crumble through the fleeting intervention of a guy who's supposed to be on your side.
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As such, let's hope that connections of Secret Oath (Arrogate) will be rewarded for persevering with Luis Contreras in the GI Kentucky Oaks. He owes them big time, after his panicked lunge for the red button when shuffled back by the colts in the GI Arkansas Derby. The whole industry had a stake in that adventure and not many of us would match the fidelity and compassion of D. Wayne Lukas and his patrons in apparently concluding that Contreras, hardly a regular at this level, will have all due motivation to make amends in the Oaks.
Secret Oath's response to the intemperate demands of her rider was such that she may yet remain the most theatrically talented of the whole sophomore crop. For now, admittedly, that feels a fairly limited distinction so far as the males are concerned. Many observers, indeed, suspect that Secret Oath may have a tougher task on the first Friday in May than might have been the case on the Saturday. But that only makes it doubly vexing that she should have completed her preparations with a really taxing race. Luckily we know that her promising young trainer likes to keep a horse at the plow, and it's not inconceivable that Secret Oath could renew contention with the colts in the GI Preakness S.
I have to admit I wasn't crazy about the fractions set by Contreras in the GIII Oaklawn Mile, either, but by the same token a top-class rider in Flavien Prat arguably shouldn't have exposed Cezanne (Curlin) to a pace that softened him up for Fulsome (Into Mischief) to pounce from last place. Cezanne has required so much patience of the people who gave $3.65 million for him at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale, now three years ago, and this was another performance in defeat that actually made you think better of the horse. To my mind there's no question that Cezanne is capable of winning a Grade I race and it would be interesting to know whether his rider deflected any blame by suggesting that they had overstretched a sprinter. Personally, I'd still like to see this guy in the GI Met Mile.
Both these horses, for different reasons, exemplify how the hectic whirlwind of a single race can compress a far wider agenda: an awful lot of time and money, in the case of Cezanne; and a glimpse of happier headlines, for a troubled sport, with Secret Oath.
And it's going to be no different Saturday, when the final round of big Derby trials bring together an awful lot of horses with zero margin for error. As things stand, in fact, of the declared runners only Morello (Classic Empire) and Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah) have already secured a gate at Churchill. No coincidence, perhaps, that both are such natural dashers. None of the others, mostly slower burns, can afford the kind of misadventure that last week cost Secret Oath her Derby spot, albeit Messier (Empire Maker) resembles the filly in having unusual reasons for being confined to this single shot at the necessary starting points. But a lot of trainers, as we noted last week, have wittingly painted themselves into this corner by trying to reconcile their preference for a light schedule with the imperative of booking a gate.
Smile Happy (Runhappy) and Zandon (Upstart) probably can't afford another learning experience of the kind they shared in the GII Risen Star S., where both surfaced for the only time in four months and a third time overall. Both line up for the GI Toyota Blue Grass S. needing a statement performance to vindicate their precarious preparation. Smile Happy is in tolerable shape, with 30 points already banked, but Zandon sits on 14 while Emmanuel (More Than Ready), another who needs to have learned fast from a messy third start, has just five.
I'll certainly be rooting for Zandon, bred and raised by a model farm and representing a young stallion punching way above fee. Upstart already has one of the Oaks favorites in Kathleen O. and she could yet be joined by Micro Share (a $450,000 2-year-old) if getting her starting points out of the GII Santa Anita Oaks. Meanwhile Reinvestment Risk, from his sire's debut crop, looks right back in business for the GI Carter H.
This quite amazing breakout by a $10,000 stallion is just one among countless themes latent in one of the most captivating days in the whole calendar, set up perfectly by the joyous rite of spring that is opening day at Keeneland.
But wouldn't it be just typical of this business if all those Blue Grass highwire acts were suddenly toppled by Contreras, riding Ethereal Road (Quality Road) for Lukas? This colt at least compiled plenty of experience in taking four starts to break his maiden and, guess what, maybe didn't benefit from optimal tactics in the GII Rebel S., engaging on the wide outside and only tiring late after the effort of taking charge took its toll. Lukas reckons a bulb has come on since, and don't forget that it was the next horse home in the Rebel who picked up the pieces as Secret Oath surrendered second last week.
No getting away from it, that whole day fell rather flat. But if the sport was diverted from a road to redemption, with Secret Oath, perhaps her rider could already be taking us along on one of his own.
