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Jockey Paco Lopez Looking Forward To Strong Competition At Monmouth Meet

The competition may change from one summer to the next but the goal never does for Paco Lopez. Once he arrives at Monmouth Park he does so with a single-minded objective: To be the leading rider.

With his right thumb fully healed following surgery on April 14, Lopez has his sights set on a seventh riding title when Monmouth Park's 75th season of racing gets underway on Friday, July 3.

“I want to try to win it again. I come to Monmouth Park thinking that every year,” said Lopez.

The native of Veracruz, Mexico, notched his sixth Monmouth Park jockey title a year ago, leaving him behind only Joe Bravo (13 titles) in number of titles won at the Jersey Shore oval.

But last year's finish atop the rider standings at Monmouth Park may have been his most impressive one yet. He didn't ride at the track until June 15 – six weeks after the meet started. Nik Juarez had built what looked to be a comfortable lead in the standings by then. Lopez caught and passed Juarez on the final weekend of the meet, finishing with 109 victories to Juarez's 107 in the closest jockey's race in track history.

The strong finish by Lopez included a victory aboard 14-1 shot Hunter O'Riley in the Grade 1 United Nations.

“You have to be lucky and stay healthy. But at least this time I will be there from the beginning of the meet, so maybe that will give me an extra advantage,” Lopez said. “I know I will try hard for it. Every year things change so you don't know what will happen. There are new faces, new clients and new challenges. You have to see what happens.”

Lopez will face some rigorous competition over the 37-day meet, with proven journeyman Victor Carrasaco, the 2013 Eclipse Award-winning apprentice, moving his tack from Maryland. Bravo is back as well, as are Juarez and reliable veterans Jose C. Ferrer and Chris DeCarlo, with Antonio Gallardo and Trevor McCarthy adding to the jockey room's star power. Gallardo, who had 65 mounts at Monmouth last year, has committed to full-time riding after recently capturing the jockey's title at Tampa Downs.

“The competition is very good this year,” said Lopez. “But I like competition. The competition pushes me.”

Lopez, who has more than 2,800 career wins, is coming off a career year, having set personal bests for victories (283) and earnings ($10.9 million-plus) in 2019.

He still sports a supporting brace on his right hand to help with his surgically-repaired thumb, which he fractured when he was unseated during a race on April 11 at Gulfstream Park. Lopez returned to riding on May 21, finishing third in the standings at the Gulfstream “Championship Meet” with 96 winners.

“I'm fine. I feel good. I'm ready to go,” he said. “I love being here every summer. I keep coming back because I love Monmouth and I love being in New Jersey in the summer. As long as I stay healthy I think it will be a good meet.”

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Superseding Indictments Could Be Coming In Federal Case Against Navarro, Servis, Etc.

Since the indictment of more than two dozen trainers, assistants, veterinarians, and pharmacists in connection with a horse doping ring this March, rumors have swirled that more names could be forthcoming in connection with the federal investigation. Speaking at a status conference for the case on Tuesday morning, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Adams told U.S. District Judge Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil that a superseding indictment could be around the corner, but did not provide details as to the timing.

“We are looking seriously at superseding indictments,” said Adams. “For the moment, and I made this point at least to some defense counsel previously, the nature of what we're looking at is largely in the same kind of criminal conduct as what is in the current indictment. We're looking at expanding timeframes for certain of the conspiracies. We're looking at potentially adding different statutory charges with respect to certain of the defendants. What I do not anticipate for the moment is that those superseding indictments, if and when they come, would require the production of some substantial large set of materials not already produced to date or already in the queue of things we expect to produce.”

A superseding indictment is one which replaces an existing indictment, and could add charges against already-named defendants and/or could name new defendants.

Vyskocil reminded Adams that the court would not hold things up while the government finishes its investigation. Adams said he understood and that he would not ask to hold up the proceedings for that reason.

The charges on the current indictments, which names former top trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis, among others, focus on drug adulteration, misbranding, and conspiracy. The indictments claim a network of horsemen, veterinarians and pharmacy reps sold, distributed and used drugs in racehorses for the purpose of performance enhancement.

Other than a potential superseding indictment, there are not likely to be many updates in the case until late fall. Currently, attorneys are going through the discovery process, meaning each side is requesting and providing requested evidence in the case. Adams said he believes his office will be able to provide the last of the discovery material requested by defendants by the end of September.

Already, the office has provided some 90 gigabytes' worth of data to all defendants in three different volumes, and has fielded 20 additional individual requests. That data includes the results of 30 different search warrants, intercepted phone calls and text messages, geolocation information for various devices, email accounts, file transfer accounts, inventory lists, shipping records, veterinary records, drug promotional and marketing material, and much more. The Federal Bureau of Investigation is still extracting data from devices like cell phones and tablets seized from defendants at the time of their arrests.

After the government produces requested evidence, it is sent to a coordinating discovery attorney for organization and distribution. One defense attorney pointed out that it generally takes the coordinating discovery attorney roughly a month to process large document releases before they are given over to defense counsel, so a late September target for discovery completion means they will get a look at the last of the evidence in early November.

Vyskocil scheduled a status conference for Nov. 19. Most participants on the call agreed it would be impractical to set a trial date or motion schedule until the defense has seen all the government's evidence against their clients.

Read more about the federal indictments in this March 9 piece from the Paulick Report.

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Ritvo Takes One-Two Punch Into Saturday’s Carry Back Stakes

Reeves Thoroughbred Racing's Double Crown and Ournationonparade will join forces or Saturday's $75,000 Carry Back at Gulfstream Park, giving trainer Kathy Ritvo a potent 1-2 punch in the seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds.

The Carry Back highlights the July 4th program, along with the $75,000 Azalea, a seven-furlong sprint for 3-year-old fillies.

Double Crown is coming off a gutsy half-length victory over graded-stakes winner and Grade 1 stakes-placed Green Light Go in the May 16 Roar Stakes at Gulfstream, in which he rallied from mid-pack to get an edge over the 2019 Champagne (G1) runner-up to Tiz the Law in mid-stretch that he would maintain to the wire.

“He's so professional. What you see in his races is what you get,” Ritvo said. “He's just a nice classy horse.”

The gelded son of Bourbon Courage won at first asking for trainer Lacey Gaudet in a Sept. 8 maiden special weight race at Laurel Park, finishing a head in front of pacesetter Ournationonparade, who was debuting for trainer Bernie Haughton. Impressed by both efforts, Dean and Patti Reeves went ahead and privately purchased both promising Maryland-bred 2-year-olds.

Double Crown was given time off after his debut victory and returned to action for Ritvo at Gulfstream with a second-place finish in an April 26 allowance, in which he ran into traffic before falling a half-length short of victory with a strong late rally. Double Crown, who came back to win the Roar, hasn't raced beyond 6 ½ furlongs in three starts.

“I think he'll go long. He's a nice enough horse that we decided to do everything right by him and give him the best opportunity to have a great career,” Ritvo said. “We're trying to give him time to develop into a good horse.”

Cristian Torres has the return mount.

The Carry Back will mark the fourth meeting between Double Crown and Ournationonparade, who made a wide bid on the far turn in the Roar before running evenly in the stretch to finish fourth, beaten 5 ¾ lengths by his stablemate.

Ournationonparade lost his rider after clipping heels in his previous race, in which Double Crown finished second April 26.

“He hasn't had the best of luck,” Ritvo said. “He's going into this race really well. I'm really happy with him too.”

After being purchased by the Reeves out of his debut, Ournationonparade returned immediate dividends, breaking his maiden in the $100,000 Maryland Million Nursery Oct. 19 for Haughton. Ournationonparade went on to finish third in the Feb. 29 Hutcheson, in which he was beaten a half-length in his first start for Ritvo.

Luca Panici is scheduled to ride Ournationonparade for the first time Saturday.

Eric Worth's With Verve looms as a strong opponent for the Ritvo-trained duo while cutting back to seven furlongs Saturday after finishing fifth behind graded-stakes winner Sole Volante in a mile allowance at Gulfstream June 10. The Larry Bates-trained son of Kantharos previously finished third in the Road, 1 ½ lengths behind Double Crown, and won the Hutcheson, in which he finished two necks ahead of Ournationonparade.

Hall of Famer Edgar Prado has the return mount.

Newtown Anner Stud and KimDon Racing LLC's Prince James is slated to make his 2020 debut in the Carry Back after finishing fifth in the Remsen (G2) at Aqueduct in his juvenile finale. The Kelsey Danner-trained son of Tiznow previously won his debut at Monmouth and finished second in an allowance race at Churchill Downs.

Edgard Zayas has the call on Prince James, who has run around two turns in all three of his career starts.

Shadybrook Farm Inc.'s Cajun Brother will be seeking to rebound from his first career loss while cutting back from a mile to seven furlongs. The Michael Yates-trained son of Cajun Breeze set a hotly contested pace before fading to sixth in a May 16 allowance. Previously, Cajun Brother scored back-to-back wins in a maiden special weight race and an optional claiming allowance, both at six furlongs.

Regular rider Miguel Vasquez has the call.

Arindel's Poe is slated to make his 2020 debut Saturday after winning two of seven starts last year. Emisael Jaramillo has be mount aboard the stakes-placed son of Brethren, who is trained by Juan Alvarado.

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Daughter of Zarkava Starts Out at Compiegne

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Wednesday’s Insights features a daughter of the undefeated Arc heroine Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar).

2.24 Compiegne, Debutantes, €22,000, 2yo, c/g, 7fT
VISSANI (FR) (Dariyan {Fr}) debuts for The Aga Khan and Alain de Royer-Dupre and is a half-brother to the triple Group 1-winning stayer Vazirabad (Fr) (Manduro {Ger}) whose dam is the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud third Visorama (Ire) (Linamix {Fr}). Among his opponents is Al Shaqab Racing’s High Impact (Fr) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), a Henri-Francois Devin-trained half-brother to the multiple group winner Stormy Antarctic (GB) (Stormy Atlantic) and G2 Queen Mary S. runner-up Al Johrah (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}).
3.32 Compiegne, Debutantes, €22,000, 2yo, f, 7fT
ZAYKAVA (FR) (SIYOUNI {Fr}) is another Aga Khan gem on a big day for the operation and definitely the main focus as the latest progeny to represent the star mare Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar). A half-sister to the Stud’s first-season sire Zarak (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}), the Alain de Royer-Dupre-trained homebred encounters some intriguing types including Godolphin’s Soundscape (GB) (Shamardal), an Andre Fabre-trained half-sister to Hunter’s Light (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}).

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