Toboggan Kicks Off NYRA’s 2022 Graded Stakes; Hopeful Treasure Possible

Grade 3 Fall Highweight winner Hopeful Treasure could return to Aqueduct in Ozone Park, N.Y., for another graded stakes engagement in Saturday's seven-furlong Grade 3, $150,000 Toboggan for older horses in what will be NYRA's first graded stakes event on the calendar year.

The six-furlong Fall Highweight provided a first graded stakes victory for both Hopeful Treasure as well as for trainer Michael Catalano, Jr., who is based at Parx Racing.

While the Toboggan is a logical option for the son of Oxbow, Catalano, Jr. said Hopeful Treasure could ship to Laurel Park for the $100,000 Fire Plug, also to be run Saturday.

“We're between two races, there and Laurel,” Catalano, Jr. said. “I'm not sure which way we're going to go. We're going to see how the races are shaping up and pick the right one.”

Hopeful Treasure has worked twice at Parx since his Fall Highweight coup, most recently working an easy half-mile in 51.47 seconds on Wednesday. Catalano, Jr. said he was tempted to run him once more last year but backed off the horse and didn't work him at all in December.

“We tried to give him enough time so he wouldn't regress, and I think he's ready,” Catalano, Jr. said.

Owned by Tony Como's Just In Time Racing, Hopeful Treasure was bought for a frugal $6,000 by original trainer Michael Pino, who conditioned the horse through three wins in his first eight career starts.

Transferred to Catalano, Jr., Hopeful Treasure picked up three more victories including a 1 ¾-length allowance score at Parx four weeks prior to the Fall Highweight.

“He's matured both mentally and physically and he trained really, really forward into both of his last races. It just seemed like he was ready to jump forward,” Catalano, Jr. said.

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‘You Can’t Bet Against Yourself’: Leading Parx Racing Jockey Mychel Sanchez Suspended

Jockey Mychel J. Sanchez was removed from his mounts at Laurel Park in Maryland on Friday after officials there learned the former leading rider at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., has been suspended by the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission.

J. Michael Hopkins, executive director of the Maryland Racing Commission said he was notified that Sanchez has been suspended 60 days by Pennsylvania stewards on Thursday, Jan. 20, for wagering on horse races.

Pressed for specifics, Hopkins said, “You can't bet against yourself.”

The Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission has yet to confirm the suspension and no recent rulings against Sanchez are posted on the commission's website.

Hopkins said the Maryland Racing Commission has already begun its own investigation of Sanchez, who has been riding at Parx, Laurel Park, Aqueduct and Gulfstream Park in recent months. His biggest win came at Aqueduct aboard Hopeful Treasure in the Grade 3 Fall Highweight Handicap  on Nov. 28.

Hopkins said Maryland could issue its own suspension of the jockey when the investigation is concluded.

A native of Venezuela where his father, brother and an uncle were jockeys, Sanchez began riding in the U.S. in 2013. He tied for leading jockey at Parx in 2019 and led the standings there in 2020. In 2021 he branched out to ride at Monmouth and elsewhere in the northeast and was a top 10 rider at Monmouth, Laurel Park and Parx Racing meets. Since 2013 he's won 940 races from 6,097 mounts for total earnings of $30.4 million.

Sanchez was named on three mounts Friday at Laurel. Two were scratched and he was removed from the third mount by stewards. He was named on one horse Saturday at Laurel and on multiple mounts Jan. 24-25-26 at Parx.

He last rode at Parx Racing on Jan. 19, winning with three of his six mounts.

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