When you win half the races on the card you are clearly having a very good day. On Saturday evening, Canterbury Park's leading rider, Harry Hernandez had such a day winning five of the 10 carded races including three stakes races. The panel of racing experts voted Hernandez Jockey of the Week for Sept. 5 through Sept. 10.
The award recognizes jockeys for riding accomplishments and who are members of the Jockeys' Guild, the organization which represents more than 1,050 active, retired and permanently disabled jockeys in the United States.
The Blair's Cove Minnesota Sprint Championship Stakes led the Festival of Champions Night that featured six stakes races for Minnesota-breds as part of their 10-race card. Trainer Michael Biehler gave a leg up to Hernandez on Jose Patio who led the field of six from gate to wire to post a 2 1/4-length win in 1:41:22 for the 1 1/16-mile turf test.
Riding for Canterbury Park's leading trainer, Joel Berndt, Hernandez was aboard the prohibitive favorite, Midnight Current in the Princess Elaine Minnesota Distaff Turf Championship for fillies and mares three-years-old and up. Breaking from post position three in the field of seven, Midnight Current was bumped at the start and stalked the pace before taking the lead at the top of the stretch to win by three lengths in 1:41.72 for the 1 1/16-mile turf race.
The trainer/jockey duo of Berndt and Hernandez teamed up again in the co-feature of the evening, the Northern Lights Futurity with Frosty View. Frosty View led the field of nine 2-year-olds from gate to wire to post a 4 1/4-length win in 1:12.33 for six furlongs on the main track.
In between the three stakes wins, Hernandez won two allowance races for trainer Tony Rengstorf with West Island in the fifth race and Sunshine Fever in the seventh race.
Hernandez, 27, followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a jockey in his native Puerto Rico where he attended jockey school. He moved his tack stateside in 2015 and won his first race at Parx that same year. He rode at tracks in the East including Finger Lakes, Monmouth and Aqueduct as well as Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay in Florida before moving west to Turf Paradise where he was the leading rider the past two seasons. He won Canterbury's leading rider title last year and is currently at the top of the standings. Canterbury's season ends Sept. 16. He is also riding at Remington Park.
Hernandez outpolled apprentice rider Axel Concepcion who won 12 races for the week to lead all jockeys, Florent Geroux with two graded stakes wins at Kentucky Downs, Juan J. Hernandez with two stakes wins at Del Mar including the G2 Del Mar Juvenile Turf, and Joel Rosario with two graded stakes wins at Kentucky Downs.
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