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Espinoza On COVID-19: ‘I Don’t Want Nobody To Have This Disease … It’s Pretty Bad’

Triple Crown-winning jockey Victor Espinoza has opened up about his experience of coronavirus, believing he contracted it at Los Alamitos and admitting: “I let my guard down.”

Espinoza landed the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes on American Pharoah in 2015. He is among a host of big-name US riders to contract the virus, which has swept through the southern Californian jockey colony, resulting in the cancellation of this weekend's Del Mar meet.

While some have been asymptomatic, 48-year-old Espinoza said he has never felt any pain like it “I don't want nobody to have this disease,” he said. “It's pretty bad.”

Espinoza tested positive after riding at the Los Alamitos Derby meeting on July 4-5, joining a list that also includes Flavien Prat, Umberto Rispoli, Luis Saez and Martin Garcia.

Describing his experience on the Winners Circle ABR Podcast, the jockey said: “I survive so far. It's been already ten days, but the first couple of days it was pretty bad.

“My body, my joints, pretty much everything hurts. I don't have a headache, it's just sometimes I get a little pressure, but that pressure is like nothing I have ever felt before. This thing is no joke.

“On Tuesday it hit me pretty hard for two hours,” Espinoza went on. “The next day I woke up normal, like nothing happened. Then the following day my body started hurting, every joint, especially my legs all the way from my hip to the ankle. The worst thing is there is not much they can do.”

Espinoza, who has also won the Kentucky Derby on War Emblem and California Chrome, said he had been advised to rest at home and was beginning to feel much better. He added that he was fortunate to not have had any breathing difficulties, a cough or temperature which would have required more urgent treatment.

Until he went to Los Alamitos, the jockey said he had been taking extra precautions to avoid catching the disease.

“I have been in quarantine since March, I never went out anywhere,” he said. “I was just so careful to take care of myself – but one second I let my guard down when I went to Los Alamitos and that was it.

“I was there Saturday, and Sunday, I started to feel tired in the afternoon and by Monday it hit me and Tuesday was the worst.”

Explaining what happened at the race meeting, he continued: “I got to Los Alamitos late and there are a couple of jockeys from out of town, like Martin Garcia and Saez. I was almost close to Martin Garcia's corner and a couple of valets, who are positive now. But then we don't know.

“When I say I let my guard down, I was not even going to take a shower but somehow they convinced me the showers were okay. So I went to the shower room and when I came back to my locker Martin Garcia was there and his valets.

“They were packing their stuff right next to me and I don't have my mask on after getting out of the shower so I believe it was the couple of seconds I don't have my mask on was how I got it.”

He added: “I don't want to say that it was Martin. We were all together. We share the room with the quarter-horse jockeys. It's pretty narrow. There is no exhalation in there. Even if you are not very close to them, you could still get infected.”

This story was originally published by Horse Racing Planet and has been reprinted with permission.

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Barnes: Authentic ‘Has Really Taken To The Track Well’ Ahead Of Saturday’s Haskell

Authentic, the 4-5 morning line favorite for Saturday's Grade 1, $1 million TVG.com Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park, is ready to roll.

That's the word from Jimmy Barnes, the top assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, who has already collected a record eight Haskell trophies.

“The horse is doing very well,” said Barnes, who arrived on the Monmouth Park backside with Authentic on Tuesday evening following a flight from their Southern California base. “He has really taken to the track well, which is how it's been with all the horses we've brought here in the past. They all seem to handle it well, and that's probably one of the reasons we keep heading back in this direction. But all horses are different in their unique way.”

The Haskell headlines a stakes-filled 14-race card that features the Grade 1 United Nations, the Grade 3 WinStar Matchmaker, the Grade 3 Monmouth Cup and the Grade 3 Molly Pitcher.

First race post time is noon. The Haskell is the 12th race on the program with a scheduled post time of 5:48 p.m., with NBC televising from Monmouth Park from 5 to 6 p.m. as part of the “Breeders' Cup Challenge Series Win and You're In – presented by America's Best Racing.”

Authentic, a son of Into Mischief, was undefeated in his first three races, including the Grade 3 Sham Stakes and the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes before he was the runner-up in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby last out. Now he is looking to enhance his status on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard.

In this reshuffled and reconfigured Triple Crown campaign due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Haskell, for the first time, is offering qualifying points (100-40-20-10) for the re-scheduled Kentucky Derby (now on Sept. 5) to the first four finishers.

In addition, the Haskell offers a “Win and You're In” bonus for the Breeders' Cup Classic on Nov. 7.

Authentic currently sits in third place with 100 points on the Kentucky Derby qualifying board, virtually assuring him his spot in the starting gate for that leg of the Triple Crown. He drew post 2 for the Haskell, with Mike Smith flying in from the West Coast to ride.

Baffert said the race strategy will be left up to Smith, one of the sport's best big-race riders.

“I haven't really even looked at these horses or what the field is. Going into these races I really don't look at that closely. Mike Smith is the master,” said Baffert. “He does his homework and he figures it out. We'll briefly talk about it. My job is to make sure he has plenty of horse underneath him.

“The horse is doing great. But like all of my horses, they have to get away from the gate cleanly. If he does, he's a horse who has speed. He can go fast, or from the two (hole), I think he can sit off of it a little bit. They key is the break. Once Mike gets away from there Mike can figure it out.”

Authentic, purchased at auction for $350,000 as a yearling, is owned by B. Wayne Hughes' Spendthrift Farm and Starlight Racing. Recently, Myracehorse.com, which is syndicate selling micro shares, came into the partnership. The deal has generated more star power around Authentic.

“What's making this a little more fun, and probably adding a little more pressure on me, is that Myrachorse.com bought into this horse and they're selling little shares, so all my friends and family have bought shares,” said Baffert. “Walker Beuhler (the pitcher) from the (Los Angeles) Dodgers and (Olympic and World Champion gold medalist skier) Bode Miller are in. They're all texting me, wanting to know how their Derby horse is doing. I think he's a top five Derby prospect.”

While Baffert, a two-time Triple Crown winning trainer, has eight Haskell victories and Grade 1 wins in the triple digits on his resume, Saffie Joseph, Jr. is looking for his first Haskell win and second Grade 1 triumph.

“Saturday is most definitely a big day for us,” said Joseph, who sends out the New York-bred Ny Traffic in the Haskell and also runs Grade 1 winner Math Wizard in the Monmouth Cup and Queen Nekia in the Molly Pitcher Stakes on the undercard.

Ny Traffic arrived at Monmouth on Tuesday and Joseph said the son of Cross Traffic has been has been training well over the racing strip as he prepares to reunite with Paco Lopez, Monmouth's defending leading rider and a six-time champion here, for this race with so much at stake.

Ny Traffic has earned 70 Derby points and is in eighth place on the qualifying ladder. He drew the outside Haskell seven post and is the third betting choice at 7-2.

“Paco thinks the draw is ideal. I love the draw, too. All the speed is inside and he's tactical enough that he can break and see what goes on, and then Paco can make decisions as far as where he needs to be. We'll leave it to him. You always want to break good, and that's key, especially on the dirt,” said Joseph, who on Friday thought he would be at Monmouth Saturday instead of at Saratoga to saddle Tonalist's Shape in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks.

Ny Traffic, second in the Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes in his last start, has yet to win a graded stakes race. But he has been knocking on the door and now his trainer thinks he may kick it down.

“On the numbers he just kept getting faster and faster,” Joseph said. “He's made progressive jumps and that's what you want to see from a 3-year-old because it means he's headed in the right direction.

“I don't think he was the best horse in the crop, but the way things have worked out, he's just climbing higher and higher. That's our hope. That he'll run another bang-up race (in the Haskell) and then hope for the Kentucky Derby that he can get there. You never know. He could be the best on the day.

“I could see our horse show up and continue to improve himself. As I said, in my opinion he was never the best in the crop, but he just keeps improving and getting better and better and better. That's all we can ask for.”

Trainer Todd Pletcher reported from Saratoga Friday that it's all systems go for Dr Post, who has been working forwardly on the Saratoga training track for the Haskell and will ship in to Monmouth Park on Saturday morning.

Dr Post, the 5-2 early second choice, will break from the inside post under 13-time Monmouth Park riding champion Joe Bravo, who tries for his second Haskell triumph (winning with Lion Heart in 2004). Pletcher is seeking his fourth Haskell win and first since 2013 (Verrazano).

Dr Post is owned by Teresa and Vinnie Viola's St. Elias Stable and is named for the man who is their longtime family physician and close friend. The colt by Quality Road heads into the Haskell with 60 Kentucky Derby points, good for ninth place.

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‘Invader’ Looks Imposing in Hall of Fame

Four-for-six Decorated Invader (Declaration of War) appears awful tough to beat in Saturday’s GII National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame S. at Saratoga. Second to subsequent MGSW Field Pass (Lemon Drop Kid) on local debut here a year ago, he broke through convincingly next out before notching a big win in Woodbine’s GI Summer S. in September. He could only manage fourth in the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf after a tough trip that had many arguing that he might’ve been best, and he’s lent support to that claim so far this season. He flew home from far back to annex Gulfstream’s Cutler Bay S. Mar. 28, and made short work of five rivals in the GII Pennine Ridge S. at Belmont June 20. The biggest question for Decorated Invader appears to be how he’ll handle nine furlongs–all his prior efforts have come over at least a sixteenth shorter.

“The challenge is when you have a horse that’s a standout in a short field, there’s going to be a target on his back,” said Terry Finley of co-ownerWest Point Thoroughbreds. “The break and the first eighth of a mile will be important. Ultimately, it will be up to [jockey] Joel [Rosario]. He really fits the horse. When they walk out of the paddock, you just have so much confidence and no concerns that you’ll get a top class ride from him. It’s very good to have the option to be a closer, but we have seen time and time again where you have the best horse in the race, and they [the pacesetters] don’t come back.”

Decorated Invader isn’t the only Christophe Clement-trained son of Declaration of War entered in the Hall of Fame–he’ll also send out Gufo, who has won his last four starts, including Delaware’s GIII Kent S. over this distance two weeks ago.

Hall of Famer Bill Mott owns a record seven victories in this race–including in 2019–and will be represented by June 20 Churchill allowance winner Moon Over Miami (Malibu Moon). Future Hall of Famer won this event four years in a row from 2015 to 2018 (he also won it in 2011), and will saddle two-for-two Domestic Spending (GB) (Kingman {GB}) for Seth Klarman’s Klarvich Stables.

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Wildcards Added To Goresbridge

Twenty-three wildcards have been added to the July 24 Tattersalls Ireland Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale which, due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, will take place at Park Paddocks in Newmarket this year rather than Fairyhouse in Ireland. The breeze is scheduled for the Rowley Mile on July 22.

Among the wildcards are lot 227, a No Nay Never half-brother to stakes winner We Are Ninety (Ire) (Thewayyouare); lot 230, a filly by red hot second-season sire Night Of Thunder (Ire) out of a full-sister to G3 Gladness S. winner Sruthan (Ire) (Arakan); lot 248, a Kodiac (GB) filly whose dam is a half-sister to the Listed Hilary Needler Trophy winner Geesala (Ire) (Barathea {Ire}) and the listed-placed Tomintoul Singer (Ire) (Johannesburg); lot 250, a Shalaa (Ire) colt whose dam is closely related to Dabirsim (Fr) (Hat Trick {Jpn}) and is also from the family of Sea Of Class (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and her slew of over-achieving sisters; lot 251, a Siyouni (Fr) brother to two listed-placed winners; lot 253, a filly by exciting young sire Make Believe (GB); and lot 254, an American Pharoah filly who is the second foal out of the listed-winning Innocent Love (Grand Slam).

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