Month: August 2022

This racing season the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club has taken a page from a Hollywood script with its own version of the 1986 movie comedy, “The Three Amigos.”

Replacing actors Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short are Florent Geroux, Ramon Vazquez and Hector Berrios. But don't expect any laughs in this account. Because the three replacements are in the serious business of riding horses at the seaside track for their first full seasons in hopes of making off with a good share of the loot Del Mar is offering by way of its husky purses.

And unlike in the film version, there are no bumblers in this bunch.

In fact, their eyes are on the finish lines each time they get astride their equine partners in these ever-moving classics. Geroux, sitting seventh on the national list of top moneymakers with more than $9 million in earnings heading into the Del Mar meeting, seems like a natural leader of the group. But so far, he hasn't found his best footing in the meet's early going. (The fact that he and his agent, Doug Bredar, didn't declare their Del Mar intentions until after the first condition book was out – and the many riding deals that were already struck because of it – had a fair bit to do with it.) That hasn't deterred him, though he did say after the first seven days of racing netted him only one winner: “I have to start bringing in some winners.”

His history indicates that probably is something that is reasonably close at hand. The good horses will be coming his way and he will begin grooving in on the track. Del Mar isn't altogether new for the 36-year-old native of France, he says, adding “I have come in here several times in the past to ride special races.” One of those races netted him the rich Breeders' Classic aboard Gun Runner in 2017.

Little wonder, then, that Del Mar holds a special place in Geroux's pantheon of super racing venues. Did the rider normally based in the Midwest come to Del Mar because Southern California's premier rider in recent years, Flavien Prat (another Frenchman), moved his tack to the east coast, thus opening up many opportunities? “Not really,” he said. “The timing was right and I just wanted to try something different.”

And, of course, he added: “Good horses, good purses and good weather.”

Will he stay in Southern California if the racing proves beneficial and profitable? “You never know,” he said cagily. “I'm excited to be here, but it's likely I'll return to Kentucky to ride after this meeting,” referencing the October Keeneland meet and the Breeders' Cup there on the first weekend in November.

Of the new Del Mar threesome, Vazquez is off to the sharpest start, already having posted five wins, along with 12 seconds and eight thirds. That puts him in a tie for fourth in the jockey standings, but his purse earnings of $659,466 puts him third on that list. Nationally, his 80 victories prior to Del Mar helped him push his total purse earnings to a shade over $8 million and a ranking of 19th in the nation.

The native of Puerto Rico graduated in 2002 from the famous jockey school in his homeland and began his racing career there. He moved on to the United States in 2011 starting at Delaware Park. He has moved his tack several times since and has been a leading rider at Remington Park in Oklahoma, Iowa's Prairie Meadows, and at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Most recently, he led the standing at the Los Alamitos meet that preceded Del Mar.

Of his time so far at Del Mar, Vazquez said, “This is an incredible opportunity. Everyone has been very supportive and the horses are running well.” That's reflected in his purse earnings and his high rate of finishing in the top three places in his races.

Top local winner for Vazquez so far is Heywoods Beach, victor for trainer John Sadler in the track's Cougar II Stakes on the season's opening Sunday.

He and his agent, William Castle, are hoping the Del Mar meeting will be a breakout time for the 38-year-old. They've decided this is the ultimate test of whether he stays in the west or returns to some of his earlier haunts.

Vazquez is quite the family man, making a home locally for him and his wife, three children and his mother as he moves ahead on his quest for a new racing venue.

Berrios, at 35, has been in the United States since 2019 and his journey to Del Mar was stoked by a longtime interest in the track and its surroundings as well as the knowledge that one of his prime supporters at Gulfstream Park, Amador Sanchez, planned on bringing a string of horses to the seaside venue. Those two factors, he said, “made the decision to come out here easy.”

The native of Santiago, Chile made an immediate impact on Del Mar fans and trainers by winning the Wickerr Stakes aboard the Marcelo Polanco-trained Irideo, a 6-year-old who paid his backers a whopping $65 on the meeting's first weekend. Berrios picked up another winner on the second weekend to post two victories over the first seven racing days.

Berrios' agent is the former local racing official Michael Burns.

The rider, who has been in action at Gulfstream in Florida, has embraced trainers in Southern California and says he's hopeful of making this his primary racing home. “I want to live and work here from now on,” he said. “I am grateful for the excellent support I have received and the excellent chance with the horse in the Wickerr and I made the most of it.”

The welcoming by the trainers at Del Mar means he's got lots to do during morning workouts. “I get on a lot of horses in the mornings and that keeps me busy,” he says.

He's hopeful that his busy mornings will turn into busy afternoons.

The post Veteran Rider Trio Performing No-Nonsense Version Of ‘Three Amigos’ At Del Mar appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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If there was racing at Ellis Park, Cowboy was here. That's how everybody knew him. No need to identify him by his first name, Robert. Or initials, R.A. And while there are a lot of Joneses, and while there might be a fair number of cowboys at the Pea Patch, there was just one Cowboy with the capital C.

Ellis Park honors a true Tri-State titan with Saturday's $70,000 R.A. “Cowboy” Jones Overnight Stakes.

Cowboy Jones died April 25 at the age of 79, leaving legions of fans with countless memories of and affection for the track's No. 1 personality. Other jockeys have won more races and riding titles than Jones' three meet championships at Ellis Park. No one comes close as a folk hero.

The Evansville Courier & Press' headline announcing his death hailed Jones as “Larger than Life,” with sportswriter Gordon Engelhardt calling him “a rock star in stirrups. A legend. A perpetually hard-working throwback” regarded as “one of the most colorful and celebrated jockeys in Ellis Park history.”

“The fabric of Ellis Park is Cowboy Jones,” Ellis racing secretary Dan Bork said in the article.

Jon Court, now the dean of Kentucky riders and a seven-time Ellis Park champion, said he sought advice from Jones after arriving on the circuit in the late 1990s.

“I give him credit for helping me be leading rider for many years at Ellis Park,” Court said. “He was always loved, will always be remembered and we'll always have a place in our heart for Cowboy Jones.”

Jones, who officially began riding in 1959 after spending time at the bush tracks around South Dakota, won at least one race in six different decades and fell short of his attempt to make it a record seventh. For the last part of his career, he'd ride only a few races a meet but was out every morning to get on horses until the stewards made him finally hang up his saddle.

But Cowboy wasn't finished with the sport he loved. You'd see the longtime Henderson resident out every day that Ellis Park ran, always smiling, talking with fans, reveling in getting his photo taken while wearing a huge cowboy hat and serving as ambassador for the track and racing.

“He was an icon at Ellis Park and let's not forget Miles Park,” trainer Rick Hiles, who first met Jones in the 1970s, said in reference to the long-shuttered track in west Louisville where Cowboy was the king. “He was fearless, and he was the kingpin – one of the top riders around. He gave it his all. That was what he loved doing, and he was a character.”

When he was rolling, Cowboy was famous for driving around in a white Cadillac convertible during the summer mornings with the top up, the windows closed tight, the heater at full blast and wearing a rubber suit in order to get down to his riding weight.

“He'd do anything to keep riding, because that's all he wanted to do,” Hiles said.

Cowboy endured scores of broken bones and was often quoted as saying his injuries shrank his height five inches. Trainer Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage said one of his first memories of Jones came in the 1960s at Toledo's Raceway Park. Jones walked haltingly into the paddock.

“He was broken down even then off a spill,” Hartlage recalled. “He came out of the jocks' room with a cane. Someone threw him up on the horse, and he went on about his business. He was a tough old bird. Always had a happy face on him, too.

“He was a fixture. Cowboy was Cowboy. He was there every morning. Just good for racing. Everybody liked him. He'd be at the races every day. You go to Ellis Park, Cowboy was there, walking around with his cowboy hat on — and cane, if he wanted to. He was a people's people.”

Equibase statistics for Jones only go back to 1976, reflecting just the last 38 years of his 55-year riding career, but it's estimated he won around 1,800 races. He last rode on July 26, 2014 at Ellis Park, finishing fourth in a $4,000 claiming race. He last won a race Sept. 15, 2004 at Turfway Park, taking a $5,000 claiming race by a nose at age 61.

Correction. He won a race as a part-owner of the Bryan Cole-trained $5,000 claimer Matt's Honey with Dennis O'Keefe's O'Keefe Circus at Ellis Park on Sept. 1, 2019. The crowd on hand went wild.

“First time I've been in the winner's circle on foot,” Jones said afterward, adding of Edgar Morales, “I told that jock, 'I've never thrown a jock up on a horse before. I hope I don't throw you over.' It was fun. My riding days are probably pretty much being over. I enjoyed talking to the jock before the race. We agreed on everything. I said, 'She can run, but she hasn't put forth any effort.' He rode perfect to instructions. He couldn't have rode any better if it had been me on it.”

Moreso than his notable riding achievements, Jones is an Ellis Park icon for being a character, his longevity and his overwhelming popularity. He received the ultimate honor by being immortalized with an Ellis Park bobblehead.

For many years, as his business waned, Jones served as the “room rider” – a jockey paid by the track to stick around through the last race to ensure there would be a rider in case a horse would suddenly need one. Throughout his race-riding career, and well past, he continued to gallop horses in the morning.

Steve Krajcir, a former clerk of scales at Ellis Park and now a jockey's agent, noted that there long has been a sign in the jocks' room that proclaims “Home of R.A. Cowboy Jones.”

Well into his 70s, “he was still wanting to get licensed, and the stewards finally said no more,” Krajcir said. “It was in Cowboy's heart and in his mind that he wanted to keep riding. Because that's what Cowboy did: ride races.

“He was definitely a fixture there…. I'd like to have a nickel for every time he put one around there on the racetrack in the mornings. He'd get on 10 ,15, 20 horses a day — just hustle one after another. He loved it down there at Ellis, and the fans loved him.”

The post Saturday Stakes Pays Tribute To Ellis Park’s ‘Rockstar In Stirrups’ appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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