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Cabrera Earns First Oaklawn Riding Title

Despite missing the final 13 racing days due to injury, David Cabrera earned his first Oaklawn Park riding title with 62 victories when the Arkansas track concluded its racing season Sunday. Cabrera was one win ahead of Francisco Arrieta and eight-time Oaklawn riding champion Ricardo Santana was third with 47 victories.

“This is a dream,” Cabrera said. “This is a dream and I really thank my agent. He's a very, very good agent. To me, having him is something very good. He's my secret weapon.”

Cabrera, who has spent the last few weeks recovering at his home in Jones, Oklahoma and is targeting a return to the saddle in late May at Lone Star Park, sustained head, neck and upper back injuries in an Apr. 8 spill, which occurred when his mount, Mostly Awesome, clipped heels in upper stretch and fell. Cabrera was unseated and tumbled hard to the ground. He said he has no memory of the accident.

“Actually, it's the like the last five days that I've started to feel normal,” Cabrera said. “Before that, I was having trouble with my senses. I was still acting a little weird. Everything, I think, has come back to normal.”

Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen won 65 races to capture his 12th Oaklawn training title. Asmussen had shared the record for most career Oaklawn training titles with the late Hall of Famer Henry Forrest. Asmussen (820) is poised to surpass the late Bob Holthus (867) as the winningest trainer in Oaklawn history at the 2022-2023 meeting.

John Ed Anthony topped all owners at the meeting in victories (19), purse earnings ($2,083,402) and stakes victories (five). Anthony set a single-season Oaklawn record for purse earnings. M and M Racing of Mike and Mickala Sisk set the previous mark ($1,782,351) in 2019. Anthony also surpassed the late Sharon Hild at the meet to become Oaklawn's all-time winningest owner. Anthony has 279 career Oaklawn victories, the first coming Feb. 16, 1972.

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Cabrera Out For Rest of Oaklawn Meet

Oaklawn leading rider David Cabrera likely will miss the remainder of the 2021-2022 meeting after sustaining upper back, neck and head injuries from a spill in Friday's first race, his agent Joe Santos said.

Santos said Cabrera has compressed C5 and C6 vertebrae, crushed cheekbones and suffered a concussion in the accident, which occurred in the upper stretch after his mount Mostly Awesome (Fusaichi Pegasus) clipped heels when in tight and fell, throwing the jockey to the ground. A trailing horse jumped the fallen Mostly Awesome near the three-sixteenths pole, unseating apprentice jockey Chel-c Bailey. Both horses involved in the accident were captured without incident and with no initial signs of distress. Bailey wasn't seriously injured and fulfilled her remaining engagements on the card. Cabrera was unconscious for approximately 20 minutes post-fall.

“It's really kind of dependent on the cognitive aspect of it, when he kind of grasps everything mentally,” Santos said. “He's a lot more active today and it's mainly just from the concussion. There's just some confusion there.”

Cabrera was the runaway leader in the Oaklawn rider standings with 62 victories through Friday, Day 53 of the scheduled 66-day meeting. Francisco Arrieta was second with 49 victories, two more than Santana, an eight-time Oaklawn riding champion.

The post Cabrera Out For Rest of Oaklawn Meet appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Miss Mosaic Goes Out On Top In American Beauty

Keystone Racing LLC's Miss Mosaic rode off into the sunset with a victory in Saturday's $150,000 American Beauty Stakes at Oaklawn by closing out her career with a neck victory before 22,000 fans.

The 6-year-old daughter of Verrazano is now slated for retirement after getting her first stakes victory in the six-furlong race over Joy's Rocket. Ain't No Elmers finished third. Li'l Tootsie, the 2-1 favorite, finished sixth.

“The trainer told me to just try not to get into trouble,” said jockey David Cabrera of the instructions sent by Kentucky-based trainer Ben Colebrook. “Once I got her sitting comfortable, she was just relaxed, so I knew they were going to have a tough time catching us.”

Miss Mosaic brings a glittering pedigree to the breeding shed, joining two siblings with stakes wins on their resumes, including Miss Temple City a multiple Grade 1-winner. The victory snapped a three-race string of second-place finishes including a runner-up performance in the Mrs. Claus Stakes at Parx Racing last month.

“It's an amazing story,” said winning owner/breeder Aaron Jutte, who noted the mare will now be bred to top sire Tapit. “We had a lot of trouble with her, Miss Mosaic, in her early career and gave her a bunch of time off. As a single owner, you don't have to worry about partners at that point, so you can give her all the time off in the world you want. Just like 2-year-old stuff and so we just gave her, basically, her 2-year-old and halfway through her 3-year-old career off. She didn't make a start until she was at the end of her 3-year-old career.”

The filly Sarah Harper set the pace but gave way at the top of the stretch to Miss Mosaic. The field chased her home as she finished in 1:10 3/5 over a fast track. She returned $16.80, $8.20 and $5.40 at odds of 7-1.

Racing resumes Sunday with a 12:30 p.m. first post.

The post Miss Mosaic Goes Out On Top In American Beauty appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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‘Amazing’ 9-Year-Old Rated R Superstar Could Make Fifth Start In Upcoming Razorback

Danny Caldwell recorded his second career Oaklawn stakes victory Saturday and he used an old script to do it.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Oaklawn's four-time leading owner said. “That's probably not been done much.”

Caldwell struck again with millionaire Rated R Superstar ($53.80), who collared front-running Mucho on the outside near the wire to win the one-mile race for older horses by a neck under David Cabrera. Caldwell also won the 2017 Fifth Season with another 9-year-old gelding, Domain's Rap, who, like Rated R Superstar, was making his seasonal debut in the race.

On behalf of Caldwell, trainer Federico Villafranco claimed Domain's Rap and Rated R Superstar for $10,000 and $50,000, respectively, the latter coming last January at Oaklawn.

“I was actually thinking about an allowance race for him this time, bringing him back off a layoff,” Caldwell said. “But he was doing so good and Freddy told me: 'He's doing as good as he's ever been doing in our barn, coming off the layoff.' He was fresh and seemed like he was ready.”

Rated R Superstar hadn't started since finishing second in a Sept. 11 allowance race at Remington Park. Caldwell said the gelding came out of the race with a minor splint bone issue, necessitating a short break from training. Rated R Superstar had five published workouts since Dec. 2, the last two coming at Oaklawn, in advance of the Fifth Season.

Last entering the backstretch, Rated R Superstar zoomed past most of the field along the rail to reach contention at the half-mile pole. Rated R Superstar had to wait briefly on the second turn before Cabrera guided the gelding to the outside, three-wide, approaching the quarter-pole. Rated R Superstar wore down a stubborn Mucho in the short run to the wire (mile races at Oaklawn begin and end at the sixteenth pole).

Rated R Superstar's winning time of 1:37.16 was the fastest since the Fifth Season was shortened from 1 1/16 miles to a mile in 2020, when the race was split. Rated R Superstar ran sixth in the second division in 2020. The track was fast Saturday.

“The pace set up well for us and he's a late runner,” Caldwell said. “David made a good move on the backside here to get him up in there. We didn't want to get shuffled back and end up going 15-wide. So, he made that move up the rail and I'm thinking, 'I hope we didn't move too quick.' But I could tell he still had some horse. Luckily, they kept going and we had an opportunity down the stretch to run them down.”

The victory was the 10th in 57 lifetime starts for Rated R Superstar and raised his career earnings to $1,271,014. He is a five-time stakes winner.

Rated R Superstar has been an ATM throughout his lengthy career, bankrolling $518,367 and becoming a multiple Grade 3 winner in his first 30 starts for trainer Kenny McPeek. Rated R Superstar made 18 starts for trainer Cipriano Contreras after being claimed for $62,500 in November 2018 at Churchill Downs.

Highlighted by a victory in the $350,000 Essex Handicap for older horses in 2019 at Oaklawn, the gelding earned $363,656 before Contreras lost him to Caldwell almost a year ago. In nine starts for Caldwell and Villafranco, Rated R Superstar has made $388,991 and posted three victories, including the $175,000 Governor's Cup Stakes Aug. 20 at Remington Park.

“Amazing,” Caldwell said.

Oaklawn's two-turn stakes series for older horses continues with the $600,000 Razorback Handicap (G3) at 1 1/16 miles Feb. 12. Rated R Superstar has already started four times in the Razorback, finishing sixth for McPeek in 2018, third for Contreras in 2019, seventh for Contreras in 2020 and fifth for Villafranco last year.

“We'll see,” Caldwell said of another potential Razorback start. “He'll tell us.”

Rated R Superstar is a son of 2008 Oaklawn allowance winner and 2009 champion sprinter Kodiak Kowboy.

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