Bob Baffert doesn’t always win the $1 million TVG.com Haskell Stakes. It just seems that way.
Category: Horse Racing News
Montanez Recovering From Back Surgery After Laurel Park Spill
Jockey Rosario Montanez, an Eclipse Award finalist as the top apprentice of 2011, is recovering from successful back surgery Saturday to repair what agent Joe Rocco Sr. said were several fractures following a spill in Friday's first race at Laurel Park in Laurel, Md.
Montanez, a 28-year-old San Diego native, was unseated when his mount, 4-year-old filly Hendaya, clipped heels and fell leaving the backstretch of a 5 ½-furlong turf sprint for filly and mare claimers 3 and up. Jockey Angel Cruz, aboard Annie Boo Boo, jumped to avoid the fallen horse and rider before ultimately easing his horse, while Hendaya was able to get up and jog off the turf course.
Surgery was performed Saturday morning at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Rocco, a former jockey who won more than 3,700 races from 1979-2011, visited the hospital and was also getting updates from Montanez's sister-in-law, Laurel-based apprentice rider Rebecca Grace LaBarre.
“She said the surgery went well,” Rocco said. “He's out of surgery. They said he had like six broken bones in his back. They didn't give me the specifics, but they said he also broke his neck somewhere but they think it will heal on its own. I feel so bad for the boy.”
A career winner of 609 races and more than $18.8 million in purse earnings since 2010, Montanez missed 20 months after suffering a concussion, fractured rib and pelvis, and head lacerations that required a plate to be surgically inserted in his face after a July 2014 spill at Saratoga, returning to the irons in March 2016.
Riding primarily in Maryland, Montanez had seven wins from 77 mounts in 2020. A multiple stakes-winning jockey, he was aboard Happy Lantern for Hall of Fame trainer King Leatherbury's 6,500th career victory Sept. 22, 2018, at Laurel.
Rocco praised Montanez's talent and work ethic, particularly during Maryland's pause in live racing from mid-March to May 30 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“I love him,” Rocco said. “I love him. I was a jockey for 40 years. He's probably one of the most determined kids I ever met, and I was very determined. He worked every day during the virus. Every day. It's unreal. I feel terrible.”
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$700,000 Guaranteed Jackpot In Sunday’s Rainbow 6 At Gulfstream
The 20-cent Rainbow 6 jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $700,000 Sunday at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
The popular multi-race wager went unsolved for the 10th consecutive racing day Saturday, when multiple tickets with six winners were each worth $44,120.70. Saturday's Rainbow 6 sequence included the $90.80 winner in the ninth race, Gettinintomischief.
The carryover jackpot is only paid out when there is a single unique ticket sold with all six winners. On days when there is no unique ticket, 70 percent of that day's pool goes back to those bettors holding tickets with the most winners, while 30 percent is carried over to the jackpot pool.
Sunday's Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 5-10, including a $55,000 handicap for 3-year-olds and up at 1 ½ miles on turf in Race 6. Renaisance Frolic, a winner of seven of 20 starts and nearly $350,000 in earnings, will carry highweight of 124 pounds. The 5-year-old Paynter gelding's trainer, Saffie Joseph Jr., is also scheduled to send out Rijeka, who captured a 1 ½-mile optional claiming allowance on turf two starts back and will carry 120 pounds.
Back-to-back $47,000 optional claiming allowances have been carded for Races 7 and 8. Speedster Go Go Gone is scheduled to make his first start for trainer Georgina Baxter in Race 7, a five-furlong turf sprint. Joe Di Baggio will seek his third straight victory in Race 8, a 5 ½-furlong sprint on the main track. A full field of $12,500 claimers will assemble for a 1 1/8-mile turf event in Race 9. The Rainbow 6 sequence will conclude with a mile race for $10,000 maidens on the main track in Race 10.
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Souper Escape Runs Away With Woodbine’s Trillium Stakes
Live Oak Plantation's Souper Escape gave her filly and mare foes the slip in the $125,000 Trillium Stakes to earn her first graded stakes victory on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine Racetrack in Toronto, Canada.
The Michael Trombetta trainee was an impressive 1:42.78 winner in the Grade 3 main track event, coming close to the 1:42.16 track record for 1 1/16 miles held by recently retired Freitag.
“When she came out from the gate, she was so nice and relaxed, it looked like it was kind of easy, but she was all game today,” said winning jockey Luis Contreras, who was bracing for the competition to come. “When I turned for home, I had so much horse and she just kept rolling.”
Souper Escape set fractions of :24.93 to the quarter, :48.65 to the half and 1:11.76 while widening her lead to three-quarters. Another Time and favorite Theodora B. were her closest rivals three lengths behind after Nantucket Red levelled off when attempting a three-wide bid down the backside.
Souper Escape opened up six lengths down the lane and ended with 4 1/2 lengths to spare as Painting, who trailed the seven-horse field through the first half-mile, rallied into second-place and finished 3 1/4 lengths clear of show finisher Another Time.
Art of Almost, Wings of Dawn, Theodora B. and Nantucket Red rounded out the order of finish.
Souper Escape paid $7.50 to win as the slight 5-2 second choice.
The four-year-old homebred daughter of Medaglia d'Oro–Cry and Catch Me also counts the 2019 La Lorgnette Stakes, her only other start on Tapeta, among her five wins from 15 starts. Today's victory boosted her bankroll well over the $200,000 mark.
Contreras and Trombetta have already teamed up for a stakes win this season with Woodstock champion Newstome at the start of the meet.
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