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Delaware: Leading Jockey Carol Cedeno Chasing Record Seventh Title

Three-time defending leading rider Carol Cedeno will be taking a run at history when the 84th live racing season at Delaware Park begins on May 26. The Delaware resident will be going for a record seventh leading jockey title at the Stanton-oval.

Since 2014, the native of Puerto Rico has been the leading jockey every season with the exception of 2017. She is currently tied with another Delaware Park legend Michael McCarthy who won six titles from 1996 through 2000 and 2002.

“I live only about a half-hour from the track and I raise my family in Delaware, so Delaware Park is home to me,” said Carol Cedeno, who is the mother of two children. “I work hard every day to make sure I can be my best for the season at Delaware Park and I take a lot of pride in being the leading rider. Every year it has been hard to be the leading rider and this may be the toughest year because I hear there are a good number of talented jockeys coming, so that just means I will be working a little harder.”

Cedeno has rewritten the Delaware Park history book on a number of other occasions.

She notched seven victories on a single card on July 11, 2018, breaking a record that had stood for more than six decades and was held by six riders. The jockeys who won six races on a single Delaware Park card were Joseph Rocco, Jr., in 2011; Michael McCarthy, who accomplished the feat twice—once in 1997 and again in 1998; Jimmy Edwards, in 1984; Greg McCarron, in 1974; George Cusimano, in 1968; and Eldon Nelson in 1958.

“To be mentioned with those kind of riders makes me extremely happy,” said Cedeno, who notched her 1,000th career victory at Laurel Park on Jan. 2. “Those are some of the best riders in racing, and to be in a group like that is special. I know to keep having success I need to keep working hard. But I love what I do and I love getting up in the morning to go to work at Delaware Park, so I am hoping I can do more.”

Cedeno has nearly 450 career victories at Delaware Park.

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Gary Contessa To Send Out First Starter In Nearly A Year This Friday At Aqueduct

Trainer Gary Contessa announced his retirement from training racehorses in March of 2020, but last December he made the decision to return as a private trainer for Bell Gable Stable. This Friday, the trainer will have his first starter since March 21, 2020 at Aqueduct.

According to the Daily Racing Form, Contessa won't be at the track to saddle Trustyourinstinct in the day's eighth race, a $40,000 claimer for New York-breds at six furlongs. The trainer will instead be setting up his base at Delaware Park, where the backstretch just opened this week.

Bell Gable is operated by Nick and Delora Beaver out of a farm near Delaware Park. Contessa's role for the couple includes building the racing operation, picking out horses at the sales, and assisting in the breeding operation.

“It's been a wonderful experience so far,” Contessa told drf.com. “He's one in a million.”

Delaware Park Approved For 77-Day Race Meet In 2021

Delaware Park is planning a 77-day meet for the upcoming 84th season of live racing after receiving approval from the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission on Tuesday.

The live racing season will open on Wednesday, May 26, and conclude on Saturday, Oct. 16.

Live racing days during the week will be announced at a later date.

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Guess Who’s Back: Vitali Saddles First Runner At Turf Paradise

Embattled trainer Marcus Vitali has returned to entering racehorses for the first time since July of 2019, this time at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Ariz. His trainee Be Gone Daddy ran third in Monday's Hank Mills Sr. Stakes, and he has four more horses entered at the track in the coming days.

The Thoroughbred Daily News briefly connected with Vitali Tuesday. The trainer said he had bad cell reception and that he would return the call, but did not do so. The TDN was unsuccessful in attempts to get comment from Arizona commission officials.

Vitali has made headlines many times over the years, first for numerous therapeutic medication violations, then for avoiding sanctions for positive post-race drug tests by turning in his license in Florida. In 2016, reporting by the Paulick Report revealed Vitali was training horses at Gulfstream Park under the name of Allan Hunter; Vitali and Hunter were subsequently barred from the entry box there and at Tampa Bay Downs. Vitali reapplied for a trainer's license in Florida, where state officials credited him with time served for his medication overages.

Vitali sent out just 29 starters in 2017, mostly at Gulfstream and Gulfstream Park West, but returned with a stronger hand in 2018, with 334 starters, also mostly in South Florida.

In 2019, Vitali's license was suspended for one year when he interfered with a search conducted by Delaware Park security of his employee's dorm, bursting into the room and absconding with an object which was never recovered. Vitali claimed the object was a container of marijuana. His employee at the time said it was an unlabeled vial containing a clear liquid of some type which Vitali asked her to keep in her refrigerator. He has completed that suspension.

In 2020, the Maryland Jockey Club told the Paulick Report that it had given trainer Wayne Potts one week to vacate his barn at Laurel Park, where he keeps 30 horses, after track officials say they discovered Potts was program training for Vitali. Vitali reportedly could not get stalls at racetracks in the area. Maryland officials said they discovered the connection between the two when horses based at Rising Sun Training Center in New Jersey were entered under Potts's name at Laurel and turned up with health certificates that had been altered to white out Vitali's name. A cluster of horses appeared at Rising Sun around that time from longtime Vitali clients, primarily from Florida. That cluster included Be Gone Daddy.

After Potts was told to vacate Laurel, Vitali applied for a training license in Illinois afterwards but was unsuccessful in receiving one. The horses formerly based at Rising Sun ran at Arlington Park and Hawthorne under trainer Dino DiZeo. Many of the same group from Rising Sun posted workouts at Turf Paradise in the days before Vitali saddled his first runner there.

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