Angel Cordero | Horse Racing Free Tips

Review: Small, a One-Man Off-Broadway Show

Officially, SMALL is a one-man show, written and performed by Robert (Bobby) Montano, the story of his years-long attempt to maintain riding weight and the lengths he went to in order to do so. But it would be more appropriately described as a show with over a dozen roles, all played by Montano.

Over 85 minutes, Montano slides in and out of different characters that all of us in racing will recognize, from Bob and Sue Duncan to Robert Pineda to Mickey Preger to stereotypical assistant trainers and fellow exercise riders, jockeys, racetrack characters-even his own mother and father. He does so with ease.

For those of us who spent time around Belmont Park in the late 70s and early 80s, it's like a walk down memory lane, as he chats with Frank Pagano Jr., brushes past Angel Cordero, and dances at the Rafters, the popular Saratoga disco of the era.

On a Sunday afternoon at the 59E59 theater in midtown Manhattan, in the middle of the Saratoga meeting, I believe I am the only racetracker in the audience experiencing this, but the rest of the crowd found the performance as mesmerizing as I did, bursting into laughter or spontaneous applause at several points during the performance, and doing the only possible thing at the end of the show: giving Montano a standing ovation.

Montano, the guest on last week's TDN Writers' Room, grew up near Belmont Park, and found his `in' to the racing world when he was delivering newspapers as a 12-year-old in Elmont, Long Island. Bob Duncan, the longtime NYRA starter, was one of his customers, and his wife, Sue, who would go on to be a trainer, was galloping horses. She began taking Montano to work with her at 4:30 in the morning, and he soon found a job with Preger.

Like any 12-year-old boy well under five feet tall, Montano starts out wishing he would grow, but as soon as he sets his sights on being a jockey, he starts praying to God for the opposite. And as he continues to grow, he takes his quest to extreme measures-amphetamines, purging, and 17-mile runs with his body wrapped in Saran Wrap. For people in the industry, it's a sad tale we've heard all too often. For the rest of the audience, it must have seemed shocking as he descends into stints in the hotbox in between popping Lasix pills. One time, he attempts to lose 10 pounds in a single day in order to accept a mount. Finally, his body wears out during the preparations for his last-ever race, which Montano recreates in stunning detail.

We root for Montano all along, through his riding days and onto college and a successful career as a t.v. and film actor, and Broadway dancer and actor.

His love of racing is palpable, and you're not sure at the end if he wouldn't do it all over again, even knowing how hard it will be.

Someone in the row behind me said he was exhausted when the show was over; that's how much energy you expend pulling for Montano while you're watching.

It's not a stretch to see SMALL expanding to a production with a full cast, songs, and an orchestra.

In other words, like Montano, SMALL deserves to be something much, much bigger.

Small runs from August 12 to Sept. 2, 2023. For schedule and tickets, visit https://www.59e59.org/shows/show-detail/small/.

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After McCarthy Spill, Migliore Blames the NY Stewards

When Trevor McCarthy went down in a spill Friday at Aqueduct and broke his collar bone and his pelvis, retired rider Richard Migliore said he was upset but not surprised. Migliore, whose son Joe Migliore is McCarthy's jockey agent, said he had been growing increasingly concerned as New York riders continued to be more and more aggressive while the stewards seem to look the other way. Something like this, he figured, was bound to happen, he said.

“People run into each other now with impunity,” said Migliore, an analyst on NYRA's America's Day at the Races show. “You can watch the races on a daily basis and there are guys who change paths without clearance, and it goes beyond herding. It's like they have a disregard for the horses and riders around them. It's very difficult for me to watch, especially when someone goes down and gets hurt. It's irresponsible on the part of the rider but they are not being held accountable. When that happens, it's human nature. The more you can get away with the rougher it's going to get. The stewards need to really crack down and lay down the law. No more nonsense.”

McCarthy was riding Ever Summer (Summer Front) in the mile-and-three-eighths turf allowance. Nearing the top of the stretch, Jalon Samuel, aboard Rhombique (Ghostzapper), came out, starting a chain reaction in which Ever Summer wound up clipping heels with another horse.

While not letting Samuel off the hook, Migliore said the jockey was no doubt following the lead of some of New York's top riders.

“The reason that accident happened is because riders have been allowed to get away with more and more of that kind of thing,” Migliore said. “Jalon Samuel doesn't get to ride a lot. But if he watches the leading riders do that and get away with it and sometimes even get lauded for it, with people saying how aggressive they are, why wouldn't he do the same thing? You have to start with the top guys. Guys needs to be sat down. Jalon Samuel is fully responsible for what he did it. But I don't want to pile on him. He sees it happen every day.”

To many New York racing observers, Irad Ortiz Jr. is the primary culprit when it comes to overly aggressive tactics and the stewards have handled him with kid gloves. Migliore said that when it comes to Ortiz the stewards have done nothing to discourage that sort of riding.

“He is very aggressive but I don't blame Irad because he's been allowed to get away with it,” Migliore said. “I have pointed it out when I feel like he's gone over a line. I am a fan. The guy brings to the table an intensify and a desire, whether it's a $5,000 claimer or Grade I and you have to applaud that. But if he's not told this is unacceptable there's no motivation to stop it. He's been wildly successful doing it. People say Cordero was the same way. If Angel did back then what Irad does now, he would have spent more time suspended than riding.”

Rhombique crossed the wire second but was disqualified and placed ninth. Samuel received a seven-day suspension. That, too, sent the wrong message, Migliore said.

“Jalon Samuel got seven days for that?” Migliore said. “Seven days for causing an accident like that, that could have easily taken down three or four other horses and caused Trevor McCarthy to be out months with a broken pelvis and a broken collar bone. Come on. That makes it even more of a joke. It's beyond my comprehension that that is the punishment. If you cause an accident you should be suspended for as long as the rider who was injured is out with his injuries. Are we going to wait until someone gets killed? The other day you could have had that scenario. Then a jockey gets busted up and a guy gets a week off. Am I crazy or is that absurd?”

Migliore rode from 1980 through 2010 and rode in 30,102 races, winning 4,450 of them. It was an era, he said, where the stewards wouldn't put up with careless riding.

“You'd go into the stewards' office and your knees would be knocking,” he said. “It was 'yes sir, no sir.' They laid down the law and you knew what was expected of you. If you are riding on a top circuit and if you can't work within the guidelines the stewards laid down then you don't belong there.”

He said the current crop of NYRA stewards needs to do the same thing, give the riders a clear understanding of what is acceptable and what is not. And they need to be tougher.

“We need stronger stewardship,” Migliore said. “Riders need guidelines that are consistent. This is what you are allowed to do and what you're not allowed to do. It shouldn't matter who it is, what day of the week it is or what kind of race it is. It has to start with the governing body. You have to be strict. Right now, they're not.”

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The Week in Review: 32 Years Ago, a Spark of Kismet at Saratoga

It was a relatively quiet Thursday last week when jockey John Velazquez registered his 1,000th victory at Saratoga, extending his record as the winningest jockey in Spa history.

Sifting through the archives to get a feel for what was going on in the sport when Johnny V. won his first career race at Saratoga back on Aug. 5, 1990, yields a heady mix of nostalgia tinged with kismet.

Although not considered a truly “historic” day of racing at the Spa, there are enough intriguing nuggets buried within the charts and news clippings from that day to earn it “historical footnote” status.

The date was a drizzly Sunday on the opening weekend of what would end up being the last four-week race meet at Saratoga. A throng of 51,769 would be announced as the second-largest crowd in Spa history, but that was just the turnstile count. You own a very rare collector's item if you still have the souvenir T-shirt from that afternoon's giveaway.

Velazquez, who had only started riding on the New York circuit earlier that year, was under the tutelage of Hall of Famer Angel Cordero, Jr., who is credited with first recognizing and then helping to develop the talent of the then-18-year-old.

But as fate would have it, Velazquez's first win at Saratoga came in a race in which Cordero got slammed to the grass course back-first when his mount veered in toward the hedge at the three-eighths pole in a turf route.

Velazquez, who was pressing the pace when the spill happened well behind him, ended up winning by a neck at 5-1 odds aboard a filly named Color Blue. The young apprentice's post-race celebration must have been muted, with his 48-year-old mentor prone on the course and being attended to by the ambulance crew.

Cordero ended up walking away from the scary-looking accident even though he was down for a good 12 minutes. Published accounts stated that he flashed the “OK” sign to onlookers, and was seen peering at a program while being assessed for injuries. Perhaps liking the mounts he saw later in the day, the wily veteran missed only the next race on the card before returning to action.

Another item that stands out from that first Spa score for Velazquez is that the race featured no fewer than seven (out of a field of 10) eventual Hall-of-Fame jockeys.

Beyond Velazquez and Cordero, the others in the second race on Aug. 5, 1990, were Craig Perret, Eddie Maple, Chris Antley, Jerry Bailey and Mike Smith.

That's quite a collection of race-riding royalty–all at varying rising and falling points on their career arcs–competing in a $25,000 claimer.

Bug-boy Velazquez, the youngest of that bunch, roared right back in Race 6, pouncing from off the pace to steal a maiden turf route by a nose with Busy as a Bee, igniting the tote board with a $127.60 winner.

Despite a two-win afternoon and the massive mutuel, the rookie rider's first trips to the Saratoga winner's circle (then still a ring of chalk drawn on the main track near the finish) didn't merit a mention in the press.

The racing coverage that day was devoted to the featured GII Jim Dandy S. (in which Johnny V. didn't have a mount), plus sidebars about Cordero's spill.

For anyone believing today that four-horse fields in Saratoga graded stakes are an entirely modern phenomenon, or that slow-paced tactics are frustratingly novel to 21st Century race-riding, we have Steve Crist's New York Times description of a “bizarrely weak” renewal of the Dandy to set us straight:

“Only four starters turned up, and their riders were apparently so worried about their mounts' being able to go the distance–a mile and an eighth–that they virtually walked most of the way,” Crist wrote. “The slow early fractions [:26.22 and :51.73] reduced the race to a three-furlong sprint to the wire.”

Chief Honcho (Smith aboard) was the winner of that dawdling Dandy in a final time 1:51.74.

Jennie Rees of the Louisville Courier-Journal seemed to be the only turf writer who noticed that “the victory was the first in a Saratoga stakesa” for Chief Honcho's trainer, a 37-year-old up-and-comer from the Midwest named Bill Mott.

It's doubtful that anyone in 1990 recognized those same-day accomplishments for Velazquez and Mott as the launch-pad milestones they would prove to be.

Over the next three decades, both jockey and trainer would become well-respected synonyms of Saratoga success, both on and off the track.

So it was fitting that when Velazquez rode Precursory (Kantharos) to victory for his 1,000th Spa win on Aug. 25, 2022, Mott was the trainer.

Travers Takeaways…

The ceremonial maroon and white paint wasn't yet dry on the GI Runhappy Travers S. canoe Saturday when speculation about the next start for Winchell Thoroughbreds colorbearer Epicenter (Not This Time) began to swirl.

With little doubt that the GI Breeders' Cup Classic is the ultimate season-ending goal, the main post-Travers question was whether or not Epicenter (112 Beyer Speed Figure) would have another race in the 10-week interim until the Classic. Trainer Steve Asmussen didn't commit either way in the immediate aftermath of the win, but he did indicate such a layoff wouldn't be considered problematic.

The marquee for the Classic is already being prepared as a highly anticipated Epicenter-vs.-Flightline (Tapit) showdown, but the undefeated 4-year-old 'TDN Rising Star' must first sail through Saturday's GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar before his Breeders' Cup status is confirmed.

Now that Saratoga's so-called Midsummer Derby is in the books, there's not much debate over Epicenter being at the top of the totem pole among sophomores aiming for two-turn glory. He manhandled the GI Kentucky Derby, GI Preakness S., and GI Haskell S. winners in the Travers, meaning the best chances for a late-summer bloom within the 3-year-old division now rest with 'TDN Rising Stars' Charge It (Tapit) and Taiba (Gun Runner).

Charge It ran second in the GI Florida Derby, then was a no-impact 17th when wide in the Kentucky Derby. But the Todd Pletcher trainee rebounded with a gaudy 23-length win in the GIII Dwyer S., and was aiming for the Travers before a foot abscess derailed his training last week. The GI Pennsylvania Derby Sept. 24 could end up being his next start.

Taiba was a surprise nomination for the Pacific Classic, but trainer Bob Baffert said Saturday that the GI Santa Anita Derby winner will probably not go in the race. After eating a ton of dirt and running into a wall of horseflesh on the far turn of the Kentucky Derby, Taiba rallied with interest in the Haskell, coming up just a head short for the win.

“I nominated him just in case,” Baffert said. “Things happen and you never say never, but the complexion of the race would have to change.” (Read: Flightline would have to go missing in action prior to the draw on Tuesday.)

Taiba is also nominated for the ungraded Shared Belief S. on the Pacific Classic undercard.

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Jockey/Horsemen Basketball Game In Saratoga Aug. 4

Edited Press Release

The 13th annual jockeys-versus-horsemen charity basketball game, which benefits the programs of the New York Race Track Chaplaincy (NYRTC), will be played Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022, at the Saratoga Springs Recreation Center at 6:30 p.m.

The game is one of the most popular events on the Saratoga social calendar and routinely attracts more than 300 fans. Admission is free.

The jockey team will once again be coached by Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero, Jr., with trainer Todd Pletcher and agent Kiaran McLaughlin coaching the horsemen team. Mitch Levites will serve as the announcer and provide lively commentary.

“This game is always immensely fun and beyond that, it raises much-needed funds to support our various programs,” said Humberto Chavez, the New York Chaplaincy lead chaplain and executive director. “Saratogians and so many of the fans who spend time in Saratoga have been great supporters of those who take care of the horses behind the scenes.”

Fans will be able to participate in raffles and one lucky fan will leave with a custom, autographed bobblehead of champion jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr.

NYRTC provides the backstretch community with children's enrichment, social service, and recreational programs, as well as educational opportunities, and non-denominational religious services.

Horsemen, individuals, or organizations who would like to sponsor the game may do so via the NY Chaplaincy website at www.rtcany.org or by contacting Eleanor Poppe at info@rtcany.org or 516-428-5267.

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